Abstract
Abstract. Five years of PM10 and PM2.5 ambient air measurements at a roadside, an urban, and a regional background site in Leipzig (Germany) were analyzed for violations of the legal PM10 limit value (EC, 1999). The annual mean PM10 concentrations at the three sites were well below the legal threshold of 40 μg m−3 (32.6, 22.0 and 21.7 μg m−3, respectively). At roadside, the daily maximum value of 50 μg m−3 was exceeded on 232 days (13% of all days) in 2005–2009, which led to a violation of the EC directive in three out of five years. We analysed the meteorological factors and local source contributions that eventually led to the exceedances of the daily limit value. As noted in other urban environments before, most exceedance days were observed in the cold season. Exceedance days were most probable under synoptic situations characterised by stagnant winds, low temperatures and strong temperature inversions in winter time. However, these extreme situations accounted for only less than half of the exeedance days. We also noticed a significant number of exceedance days that occurred in the cold season under south-westerly winds, and in the warm season in the presence of easterly winds. Our analysis suggests that local as well as regional sources of PM are equally responsible for exceedances days at the roadside site. The conclusion is that a combined effort of local, national and international reduction measures appears most likely to avoid systematic exceedances of the daily limit value in the future.
Highlights
Since 2005, legal limit values apply to environmental particulate matter (PM) within the European Community (EC, 1996, 1999)
The metrics of PM10 and PM2.5 are simple in that they can be determined in air quality networks with reasonable costs using on-line instrumentation such as the TEOM, the beta gauge, the OPC, or the off-line reference methods based on filter collection and gravimetry
These PM10 concentrations are consistent with other Central European lowland observation sites whose annual average values range between 20 and 30 μg m−3 (Putaud et al, 2010)
Summary
Since 2005, legal limit values apply to environmental particulate matter (PM) within the European Community (EC, 1996, 1999). It is evident that especially PM10 encompasses a wide range of particle types regarding size (coarse, fine, ultrafine), chemical composition (dust, combustion particles, marine primary particles, secondary organic aerosol, secondary inorganic aerosol), and sources (natural, traffic, industry, domestic households, secondary processes). This complex composition hampers the understanding of PM10 as a function of local sources, long-range transport and meteorology for a given site. Due to the scientific evidence of health effects as a result of airborne particulate matter exposure, health effects scientists have called for a more serious consideration of efficient abatement measures (Annesi-Maesano et al, 2007)
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