Abstract
Environmental science students are frequently exposed to the analysis of waters, soils, and biological species but have limited experience analyzing the air they breathe. This lab experiment was developed to introduce environmental science majors to a high-volume air sampler, hot-acid extraction, graphite furnace atomic absorption (GFAA) spectroscopy, limits of detection and quantitation, and percent recovery. Lead was specifically chosen for analysis due to the University’s location in Berks County, PA, where two nonattainment areas of this criteria air pollutant are designated by U.S. EPA. Two lab sections determined the concentration of lead in total suspended particulates (TSP) to be 0.0097 ± 0.0009 μg/m3 and 0.0011 ± 0.0012 μg/m3 on two different sampling days in March 2013. Students compared their experimental values to the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead of 0.15 μg/m3. This experiment provided students an opportunity to think about the chemical composition of atmospheric particles, emission sources, and human health effects.
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