Are PAHs concentrated in specific vegetables or fruits?
A. That’s a good question. I haven’t seen any research that has found that certain plants accumulate PAHs more than others. PAH exposure also depends on how you cook your food. Charcoal broiling typically enhances your exposure because when you burn that charcoal, the PAHs formed from combustion get deposited on the meat. And, of course, if you’re a smoker, your exposure is increased from burning tobacco. One of the things that is really going to increase the exposure to PAHs in the coming years is coal burning in China. The global winds drift from west to east, so coal that burns in China gets in the atmosphere and then is deposited in the U.S., especially on the West Coast. Over the next 20 years there’s going to be a huge boom in coal-fired energy production plants in China, so we may see a big increase in PAH exposure. Q. Do some of these carcinogens also act as teratogens and cause birth defects? A. That’s not really known. Dioxins, which are chemically very similar to PAHs, do ca
