Abstract
The work presents the results of research and analyses related to measurements of concentration and chemical composition of three size fractions of particulate matter (PM), PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0. The studies were conducted in the years 2014–2016 during both the heating and non-heating season in two Polish cities: Wrocław and Poznań. The studies indicate that in Wrocław and Poznań, the highest annual concentrations of particulate matter (PM1.0, PM2.5, and PM10) were observed in 2016, and the mean concentrations were respectively equal to 18.16 μg/m3, 30.88 μg/m3 and 41.08 μg/m3 (Wrocław) and 8.5 μg/m3, 30.8 μg/m3 and 32.9 μg/m3 (Poznań). Conducted analyses of the chemical composition of the particulate matter also indicated higher concentrations of organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC), and water-soluble ions in a measurement series which took place in the heating season were studied. Analyses with the use of principal component analysis (PCA) indicated a dominating percentage of fuel combustion processes as sources of particulate matter emission in the areas considered in this research. Acquired results from these analyses may indicate the influence of secondary aerosols on air quality. In the summer season, a significant role could be also played by an influx of pollutants—mineral dust—originating from outside the analyzed areas or from the resuspension of mineral and soil dust.
Highlights
In the last few decades, concentrations of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide within Europe, including Poland, decreased significantly [1]
Pursuant to the regulation of the Minister for Environmental Protection [22], the permissible annual average concentration of PM2.5 in the air is equal to 25 μg/m3; in 2014 the applicable margin of tolerance was equal to 1 μg/m3
For stations located in Poznan, the analysis revealed that in the winter season at the station at Polanka Street (Station 7), the most significant for the first Principal Component (PC) were organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), F−, Cl− and K+, whereas at the station at Jana Pawła II (Station 8), the most important for the first PC were: F−, Cl−, SO42−, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+, which indicates combustion processes as the source of the considered pollutants
Summary
In the last few decades, concentrations of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide within Europe, including Poland, decreased significantly [1]. There are many regions in Europe where standards established for particulate matter (PM) are still being exceeded, which negatively influences the health of people inhabiting those regions. The highest air pollution levels in Europe are observed in the eastern and central part of the European continent, which includes Poland [1,8,9]. In the years 2010–2014, the highest annual average concentrations of PM10 in the air were observed in the following Polish cities: Kraków, Poznan , Wrocław and Warszawa. In the case of Polish metropolitan areas, there is a clear seasonal variability in concentrations of particulate matter. The condition described above is influenced by the topography and meteorological factors, but a large role is played by methods used to heat dwellings (dwelling-adjacent individual boiler rooms with hard or brown coal used as fuel)—so called low-stack emissions from municipal and household sectors [11,13,14,16,17,18]
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