This study describes the analysis of 16 +1 US-EPA Priority PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) occurrence
in twenty-three (23) imported and locally manufactured samples of green, black and herbal tea commercially
marketed and widely consumed in Nigeria. A gas chromatograph (GC) coupled with an auto-sampler in
tandem with a flame ionisation detector (FID) was used for the analysis. The percentage recoveries of each
individual PAH varied between 90.24 and 108.92%. The degree of contamination expressed as sum of sixteen
priority PAHs (Σ16PAHs) ranged between 1.63 ± 0.33–73.53 ± 6.07 μg/kg, 4.71 ± 0.23–79.61 ± 7.02 μg/
kg, and 12.52 ± 0.15–26.89 ± 0.68 μg/kg, for green, herbal and black tea samples, respectively. Benzo(a)
pyrene played a significant role in the carcinogenicity and mutagenicity potentials of the samples. The lifetime
cancer incident risk assessments indicate higher cancer risk levels in herbal and black teas. Generally, children
have higher lifetime probability of cancer risk than adults