Abstract
The experiments of this study were carried out between November 2010 and December 2010 at three sampling sites in Taiwan: a school (Hung-kuang [HK]) and a wetland (Gao-mei [GM]) in Taichung, as well as at an industrial site (Quan-xing [QX]) in Changhua. A MOUDI-100S4 sampler was used to collect 1-day ambient suspended particles. The samples were weighed and analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) after collection. Concentrations of particulates of different sizes and their distribution were investigated. In addition, the ambient air metallic element concentrations and size distributions for Zn, Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb were also studied. The results showed that the average ambient air particle concentrations order was Quan-xing (QX, industrial) > Hung-kuang (HK, school) > Gao-mei (GM, wetlands). The metallic elements Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb were mainly distributed in coarse particles, while Ni was distributed in fine particles at the HK sampling site. Also, the metallic element Cu was the only element distributed in fine particles for the GM sampling site. The metallic elements Cu and Ni were the only elements associated with coarse particles at the QX sampling site. The results also indicated that the main contributions of ambient air pollutants for QX were from various industrial process and the main contributions for HK sampling site were from traffic and residual areas. The main contributions of ambient air pollutants for GM site likely came from long-range transport. The QX site had the highest average particle concentrations (PM18 = 21.91 μg/m3, PM10 = 20.45 μg/m3, PM2.5 = 22.13 μg/m3, PM1 = 25 μg/m3) compared with those from the other sampling sites in this study. This finding is likely due to its location in an industrial area. In addition, the results suggested that the main pollution source for QX is manufacturing plant emission, while the source for HK is traffic emission. Moreover, the main pollution source for GM (wetlands) may be long distance transportation when the wind is blown from northwest of mainland China.
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