Abstract
Standard source apportionment techniques for atmospheric particulate (PM) collected near opencast coal mines provide less accurate results, as the inorganic mineral components in the overburden and at adjacent residential locations are similar. This study explores the use of the stable carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotope ratios (13C/12C and 15N/14N) and thermal optical methods to differentiate sources of carbonaceous material in the atmospheric PM samples from the opencast coal mines and adjacent communities. Both techniques allow a clear distinction between atmospheric PM samples from the opencast coal mines and communities to be made, although distinguishing between the contributions of coal combustion, liquid fuel combustion and the domestic use of biomass for requires further analysis.
Highlights
Atmospheric particulate matterAir pollution in South Africa has been identified as one of the critical threats to human health, the environment and sustainability in general
As the inorganic components of atmospheric particulates from opencast mines and from other sources in their vicinity are often very similar, this paper explores the use of carbon- and nitrogen-related parameters of the atmospheric PM10 collected from opencast coal mines and from sites in adjacent residential communities to establish whether significant differences occur
Areas located in the Highveld Priority Area (HPA) and Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area (WBPA) air quality management priority areas were selected for the study and consisted of three opencast coal mines and an adjacent community for each mine
Summary
Air pollution in South Africa has been identified as one of the critical threats to human health, the environment and sustainability in general (see for instance Lim et al 2011). The three priority areas which have been declared far in South Africa include the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area (VTAPA) in Gauteng Province, the Highveld Priority Area (HPA) in Mpumalanga Province and Waterberg-Bojanala Priority Area (WBPA) in the North West and Limpopo Provinces. Anthropogenic sources of air pollution in all these areas include industrial facilities, power generation, transport, agricultural activities and coal mining (DEA, 2011). Elevated atmospheric concentrations of criteria pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and atmospheric particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5; particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm and 2.5 μm, respectively) have been observed in these priority areas, resulting in stakeholder concerns on the resultant negative health and environmental impacts thereof (DEA, 2017). The health impact of atmospheric PM is historically measured by the concentration of particulate smaller than 10 μm or PM10 (Albers et al 2015; Kunzli and Tager 2000; Mannucci and Franchini 2017) while PM2.5 is increasingly recognised as being of importance due to its higher toxicity and increased penetration into the gas exchange regions of the respiratory system (Hartmann et al 2016)
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