SHORT COMMUNICATION
PAH Concentrations Inside a Wood Processing
Plant and the Indoor Effects of Outdoor
Industrial Emissions
Patrycja Rogula-Kopiec1, Wioletta Rogula-Kozłowska1, Barbara Kozielska2, Izabela Sówka3
More details
Hide details
1Institute of Environmental Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences,
M. Skłodowska-Curie 34, 41-819 Zabrze, Poland
2Department of Air Protection, Silesian University of Technology,
Konarskiego 22B, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
3Environmental Protection Engineering Institute, Wroclaw University of Technology,
Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Submission date: 2015-01-27
Final revision date: 2015-02-04
Acceptance date: 2015-02-18
Publication date: 2015-07-27
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2015;24(4):1867-1873
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Our study was aimed at assessing the effects of indoor and outdoor emission sources on indoor and outdoor
concentrations of ambient particulate matter (PM) and PM-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs) in a small sawmill in Silesia, Poland. The concentrations of total suspended particles (TSP), of their
respirable fraction (PM4), and of 16 PM4- and TSP-bound PAHs were measured. The indoor PM emission
sources (i.e. the saw and other tools for wood processing) did not cause a significant hazard to the sawmill
workers. Nonetheless, the concentrations of the 16 PAH mixtures within the sawmill were high, especially
indoors. Such high indoor PM-bound PAH concentrations were due to sawdust-adsorbing PAHs coming from
industrial PAH sources beyond the sawmill (a cokery).