An overview of research and development themes in the measurement and occurrences of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in dusts and particulates

•> 42,000 papers with PAH in the title or the abstract have been published since 1970.•Text -mining has been used to identify research themes in paper titles and abstracts.•Titles and abstracts from >3000 papers on PAHs in airborne particulates were reviewed.•Word pair network plots were used to highlight research themes. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of organic compounds consisting of two or more fused aromatic rings and are probably one of the most studied groups of organic chemicals in environmental research. PAHs originate mainly from anthropogenic processes, particularly from incomplete combustion of organic fuels. PAHs are distributed widely in particulate matter. Due to widespread sources and persistent characteristics, PAHs disperse through atmospheric transport and exist almost everywhere. Human beings are exposed to PAH mixtures in gaseous or particulate phases in ambient air. Long-term exposure to high concentrations of PAHs is associated with adverse health problems. This review identifies the main research and development themes in the measurement and occurrences of PAHs in dusts and particulates using a new approach to carrying out a literature review where many peer-review publications have been produced. The review extracts the most important research themes from a literature search using a combination of text mining and a more detailed review of selected papers from within the identified themes.