3.2. PAH profiles or relative abundance ratio of individual PAH
compounds, relative to BaP
Fig. 1 shows the PAH profiles or relative abundance ratio of
individual PAH compounds relative to BaP concentration for different
indoor and outdoor microenvironments. The PAH profiles (i.e. relative
abundance ratios) were calculated as defined by Eq. (1). An ANOVA
test indicated that there were no statistical differences in the relative
abundance ratios measured in different microenvironments for any of
the PAH compounds, with exception of benzo(a)anthracene and
benzo(b)fluoranthene, for which relative abundances were higher
(pb0.01) in the aluminum smelter than in any other of the
microenvironments tested. The probability of this result being skewed
by a small number of samples in each group was negligible as the
partial η2 values ranged from 0.00 to 0.12, which indicates a small
effect size (Cohen, 1992). Therefore, for the major part of the high
molecular weight PAHs, including BaP, there are no statistically
significant differences in the PAH profiles (i.e. relative abundance
ratios) between different indoor and outdoor microenvironments