Intensive use of asphalt generates pollutants into the atmosphere which are harmful to the environment and worrying for occupational health. The application of asphalt products leads to emissions of significant concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and particulate matter (PM) to the atmosphere. This paper aims to assess the pollutant emissions into the atmosphere in real conditions of asphalt paving through sampling and quantification of PM, Black Carbon (BC) and PAHs in fine particulate fraction and PAHs in gas phase. Concentration intervals of PM1.0, PM2.5, BC1.0 and BC2.5 found during a highway reconstruction in Londrina/PR were respectively 5.6-20.5; 6.3-24.2; 2.0-6.8 and 1.8-6.5 µg m-3. During asphalt surfacing at the same city’s central bus station, the concentration intervals were 15.1-75.1; 19.7-150; 5.1-14.6 and 4.9-16.2 µg m-3 for PM1.0, PM2.5, BC1.0 and BC2.5, respectively. PAHs in the gas and PM fractions were found in both situations with higher concentrations in the gas phase. The results of this work can provide useful information to society in order to improve practices and promote lower environmental impact and health protection.

In order to study the emission of vapor-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by light-duty vehicles burning gasoline and ethanol blends, air samplings were performed at a parking lot in Londrina, PR, Brazil. The samples were obtained during the summer and winter 2012. The semi-volatile PAHs were collected using a cartridge packed with XAD-2 resin, extracted under sonication and subsequently analyzed by liquid chromatograph equipped with fluorescence and photodiode array detectors. Acenapthene (ACE) appears as the most abundant PAH, followed by acenapthylene (ACY) (summer) and fluorene (FLU) (winter). From the total PAHs analyzed (83.5 ng m−3 in winter and 574 ng m−3 in summer), low molecular weight PAHs (LM-PAHs) corresponded to 93%. The PAH source fingerprint identified in this study was obtained from local and identified sources, and the fluoranthene (FLT) / (FLT + pyrene (PYR)) and anthracene (ANT) / (ANT + phenanthrene (PHE)) ratios corresponding to 0.94 and 0.46, respectively, were characteristic of gasoline and ethanol blend emission.