Airborne particulate matter pollution in urban China: a chemical mixture perspective from sources to impacts

Ling Jin,Pingqing Fu,Xiangdong Li,Xiaosan Luo

doi:10.1093/nsr/nww079

Abstract

AbstractRapid urban and industrial development has resulted in severe air-pollution problems in developing countries such as China, especially in highly industrialized and populous urban clusters. Dissecting the complex mixtures of airborne particulate matter (PM) has been a key scientific focus in the last two decades, leading to significant advances in understanding physicochemical compositions for comprehensive source apportionment. However, identifying causative components with an attributable link to population-based health outcomes remains a huge challenge. The microbiome, an integral dimension of the PM mixture, is an unexplored frontier in terms of identities and functions in atmospheric processes and human health. In this review, we identify the major gaps in addressing these issues, and recommend a holistic framework for evaluating the sources, processes and impacts of atmospheric PM pollution. Such an approach and the knowledge generated will facilitate the formulation of regulatory measures to control PM pollution in China and elsewhere.

Highlights

Due to China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization, air-pollution problems of a magnitude comparable to those that took a century to develop in many developed countries have emerged in China over a relatively short span of three decades [1]
Such an approach and the knowledge generated will facilitate the formulation of regulatory measures to control particulate matter (PM) pollution in China and elsewhere
In response to the increasingly extreme episodes of haze, for example, in 2013, the Chinese government released the ‘Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan’, in which it announced its aim of achieving a reduction in PM2.5 levels of up to 25% from the 2012 levels by 2017

Summary

Introduction

Due to China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization, air-pollution problems of a magnitude comparable to those that took a century to develop in many developed countries have emerged in China over a relatively short span of three decades [1]. Organic aerosols (OA), which are essential components in the atmosphere [30], make up a large fraction of mass (20–90%) of atmospheric fine particles in urban and industrial sites on a global scale [31].

Results

Conclusion