Concentrations and congener-specific profiles of 7 indicator polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) wereexamined in street dust samples collected from an industrial park in Thai Nguyen Province, an urbanarea in Ha Noi City, and a rural area in Bac Giang Provine, northern Vietnam. Concentrations of 7PCBs in our street dust samples decreased in the order: industrial (median 5.8
range 2.1–22 ng/g) >
urban (3.5
2.4–9.7 ng/g) >
rural samples (0.06
0.01–0.33 ng/g). These observations suggest a currentemission of PCBs in the industrial park together with historical releases from electric and electronicequipment in the urban area, indicating the relationship between environmental levels of PCBs anddegree of industrialization and urbanization in northern Vietnam. Occupationally exposed persons(e.g., street sweepers, salesmen, and traffic policemen) and children in the industrial and urban areaswere estimated to receive higher exposure doses of dust-bound PCBs compared to general population
however, human health risks related to street dust contaminated by PCBs in the studied areas wererelatively low.Keywords: PCBs, street dust, urban area, industrial area, risk assessment.