Abstract
ABSTRACTThis study investigated seasonal variation and transport routes of PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 associated metallic elements in the western coastal area of southern Taiwan. Particle sampling was conducted from March 2009 to February 2010. Sixteen metallic elements in PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 samples were determined by ICP-AES and ICP-MS. Multiple approaches, backward trajectory analysis, enrichment factors (EFc), and principle component analysis (PCA), were used to identify the potential sources of the metallic elements. Analysis of the temporal distribution revealed seasonal peaks for most of the trace elements in PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 during winter season and the major elements in PM2.5-10 during the autumn season. The EFc confirmed that the main contributors of Cu, As, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Se were anthropogenic sources. PCA suggested traffic emissions, coal, and heavy oil combustion from both local and neighboring areas, as the major anthropogenic contributors at the sampling site. Backward trajectory analysis, demonstrated different chemical characteristics between the northeast (winter originating in China) and southwest monsoon (summer, from the Southeast Asia). Even in the same season, route-dependent effects of long-range transport in metallic concentrations and total excess cancer risk (ECR) of health-related metals were observed
Highlights
Ambient particulate matter (PM) is a complicated mixture of the chemical components directly released from natural or anthropogenic origins
This study presented backward trajectory analysis, enrichment factors (EFc), principle component analysis (PCA), and excess cancer risk (ECR) to examine the effects of seasonality and transport routes on the chemical characteristics of PM2.5 and PM2.5-10
Distinct seasonal variations were noted for the particulate metallic elements, with higher concentrations of metals during the winter season and lower concentrations during summer time
Summary
Ambient particulate matter (PM) is a complicated mixture of the chemical components directly released from natural or anthropogenic origins. It is emitted as primary or arises as secondary pollutants and is widely represented as suspended particles. PM2.5, is especially harmful to human health in terms of respiratory and cardiopulmonary diseases, morbidity, and mortality (He et al, 2010), and epidemiological studies affirm these associations (Pope et al, 2002; Englert, 2004; Laden et al, 2006; Cao et al, 2012). Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has considered the metallic elements like As, Cd, Co, Cr, Ni, and Pb present in fine particles as human or animal carcinogens (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxicprofiles). The emission of PM is associated with a range of sources, such as coaloil combustion, industrial activities, traffic, soil dust, and sea salt (Almeida et al, 2005; Lin et al, 2008; Mamane et al, 2008; Lee and Hieu, 2011; Lee et al, 2016)
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