Pollution Level, Partition and Spatial Distribution of Benzo(a)pyrene in Urban Soils, Road Dust and Their PM10 Fraction of Health-Resorts (Alushta, Yalta) and Industrial (Sebastopol) Cities of Crimea

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in particular benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), are priority organic pollutants coming from various anthropogenic sources. The levels of accumulation and the spatial distribution of BaP in urban soils, road dust and their PM10 particles (with a diameter of less than 10 microns) were for the first time determined for various land use zones and roads of different size in the cities of Crimea—Alushta, Yalta and Sebastopol. The average content of BaP in soils and road dust in Alushta is 60 and 97 ng/g, in Yalta—139 and 64 ng/g, in Sebastopol—260 and 89 ng/g, respectively, which considerably exceeds the background level (1 ng/g). The BaP concentrations in PM10 particles of soils and dust are up to 11 and four times higher, respectively, than the total contents; they concentrate 35–70% of amount of the pollutant. The accumulation of BaP in soils and dust depends on the type of land use and size of roads. The exceedance of BaP standards in soils and road dust indicates a hazardous environmental situation in three cities of Crimea. The most dangerous are PM10 particles, which form anomalies with extreme levels of BaP contamination.