Effects of studded tires on roadside airborne dust pollution in Niigata, Japan

Abstract

Two series of dust samples, collected by Andersen impactors (denoted by AN) and low-volume air samplers (denoted by LV), were investigated with respect to roadside airborne dusts collected in two different periods in 1983. These were the periods 1. (i) with studded tires (February and March) and 2. (ii) without studded tires (October). Multi-element determinations of these samples were made by neutron activation analysis and atomic absorption spectrometry. The total concentration of AN in roadside air for period (i) was about three times higher than for the period without studded tires. The lithophilic elements such as Na, Al, K, Ca, Ti, Fe and Th, and component-metal elements of stud tip, W and Ta, produced a significant increase in atmospheric concentration in winter. The contribution of pavement material, one of the most interesting components of airborne particles in this study, was related to total AN and LV by the chemical element balance method. It made up only 16 percent (9.1 μgm −3) of AN in October, compared with 46 percent (70.2 μgm −3) in February. It was also observed that the atmospheric concentrations of pavement debris to total LV decreased with the distance from the road to each sampling site.