PAHs also Known as polyaromatic hydrocarbons or polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons are the compounds containing two or more aromatic rings. They only contain carbon and hydrogen and are composed of multiple organic rings in which the electrons are delocalized. The simplest form of PAH is naphthalene which contains only two aromatic rings followed by anthracene and phenanthrene which contain three-ring compounds. Other examples are Phenalene, Tetracene, Chrysene, Triphenylene and pyrene etc. Most of the PAHs have been documented to be potent mutagens and carcinogens.
Published in Chapter:
Impacts of Hazardous Waste on Soil Health: Sources of Hazardous Wastes
Jatinder Kaur Katnoria (Guru Nanak Dev University, India) and Priyanka Sharma (Guru Nanak Dev University, India)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-0031-6.ch002
Abstract
Soil, a natural medium for plant growth, provides the anchorage to the plants and supplies various nutrients required for the plant growth. It is an important ecosystem that not only provides the shelter to various organisms but also participates directly or indirectly in various biogeochemical cycles. However, in recent years, the earth's soil has been stripped away, rendered sterile, and contaminated with toxic chemicals due to various anthropogenic activities. This increasing wide spread pollution has caused vast areas of land to become non-arable and hazardous for both wildlife and human populations. Unlike many other organic pollutants, which are degraded in the soils, some of the hazardous compounds like heavy metals, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic compounds, and phthalates are of special concern as most of these are conserved. The presence of such compounds in soil ecosystem causes severe toxicity and imbalances in the soil ecosystem as a whole. The chapter focuses on various sources of soil pollutants and the effects of hazardous compounds on soil health.