Long-Term Variability, Source Apportionment and Meteorological Controls of PM2.5-Bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at a Southern Italian Mediterranean Urban Site

A three-year (January 2020–December 2022) daily dataset of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) collected in parallel with PM2.5 and a suite of meteorological variables at a coastal Mediterranean urban site in southern Italy (Pomigliano d’Arco, Campania) is presented and analysed. Raw PAH time series were decomposed into a long-term trend component (LT), a seasonal component (ST), and a residual component (RT) using an iterative missing-value-robust Kolmogorov–Zurbenko (KZ) moving-average filter. Spearman rank correlations between PAH concentrations and four meteorological predictors (mean temperature, relative humidity, mean wind speed, and maximum wind speed) were computed for each congener. Diagnostic molecular ratios—Fla/(Fla + Pyr), BaP/BghiP, Indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene/(IcdP + BghiP), and BaA/(BaA + Chr)—were evaluated seasonally and interpreted jointly with an information-theoretic Bayesian mixture modelling procedure (SNOB/MML) and with the documented susceptibility of some PAH ratios, especially BaP-containing ratios, to atmospheric ageing, phase repartitioning and summer photodegradation. Total PAH concentrations (sum of 16 congeners) ranged from <1 ng m−3 in summer to 46 ng m−3 during winter high-pollution episodes, with BaP peaking at ≈6.7 ng m−3. Because BaP was measured in the PM2.5 fraction, comparisons with the EU annual target value of 1 ng m−3 established for PM10-bound BaP are treated as indicative context only, not as formal compliance statements. Pronounced seasonal variability was driven primarily by residential heating emissions, and the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) for inhalation exposure reached (Formula presented.) (95% CI: (Formula presented.) – (Formula presented.) ) during the heating season under a continuous outdoor-exposure worst-case scenario. The absolute ILCR magnitude is conditional on the selected TEF scheme and on the adopted BaP unit-risk coefficient; under an additional indoor-dominated scenario (16 h day−1, infiltration factor 0.6), the corresponding risk remained above the conventional (Formula presented.) benchmark. An anomalous near-background PAH signal during spring 2020 is attributed to the COVID-19 national lockdown, which reduced total PAH concentrations by approximately 85% relative to the seasonal component predicted by the iterative moving-average filter for the same calendar window. Source apportionment via diagnostic ratios identifies residential/biomass combustion as the dominant cold-season source and vehicular emissions as the prevailing warm-season source. These results provide a novel characterisation of PAH pollution dynamics in the undersampled southern Mediterranean and provide evidence to support targeted abatement policies.