Daily personal exposures to benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) of 31 newsagents working in Genoa, Italy, were evaluated throughout 1998 during two different seasonal periods (February–April and May–June). Exposures of smoker and non-smoker subjects were compared. The highest BaP exposures were those of smokers during the cold period (2.20±0.84ng/m3). During this same period, the BaP exposure for non-smoker subjects was 1.00±0.32ng/m3. Both smoker and non-smoker exposures showed a seasonal dependence, with the lowest values occurring in the warm period (smokers: 1.46±0.72ng/m3, non-smokers: 0.65±0.25ng/m3). Compared to the cold period, the warm period produced a nearly 35% reduction in BaP exposures in both smoker and non-smoker subjects. A linear correlation was observed between personal exposures and number of cigarettes smoked daily. An increase in average daily BaP exposure of 0.071±0.009ng/m3 for every cigarette, due to passive smoke, was calculated. Mean BaP concentrations calculated from fixed monitoring stations were nearly 40% higher than mean personal exposures of non-smoker newsagents.