Abstract
Abstract. Hazardous air pollutants, such as trace elements in particulate matter (PM), are known or highly suspected to cause detrimental effects on human health. To understand the sources and associated risks of PM to human health, hourly time-integrated major trace elements in size-segregated coarse (PM2.5–10) and fine (PM2.5) particulate matter were collected at the industrial city of Foshan in the Pearl River Delta region, China. Receptor modeling of the data set by positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used to identify six sources contributing to PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations at the site. Dominant sources included industrial coal combustion, secondary inorganic aerosol, motor vehicles and construction dust along with two intermittent sources (biomass combustion and marine aerosol). The biomass combustion source was found to be a significant contributor to peak PM2.5 episodes along with motor vehicles and industrial coal combustion. Conditional probability function (CPF) analysis was applied to estimate the source locations using the PMF-resolved source contribution coupled with the surface wind direction data. Health exposure risk of hazardous trace elements (Pb, As, Si, Cr, Mn and Ni) and source-specific values were estimated. The total hazard quotient (HQ) of PM2.5 was 2.09, higher than the acceptable limit (HQ = 1). The total carcinogenic risk (CR) was 3.37 × 10−3 for PM2.5, which was 3 times higher than the least stringent limit (1.0 × 10−4). Among the selected trace elements, As and Pb posed the highest non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to human health, respectively. In addition, our results show that the industrial coal combustion source is the dominant non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk contributor, highlighting the need for stringent control of this source. This study provides new insight for policy makers to prioritize sources in air quality management and health risk reduction.
Highlights
Ambient particulate matter (PM) is ubiquitously suspended in the atmosphere, which profoundly affects human health, visibility and global climate
Mass contributions to PM10 from coal combustion and secondary inorganic aerosol were essentially unchanged from the fine fraction (16.8 and 16.9 μg m−3, respectively), while the contributions from motor vehicles (30.2 μg m−3) and construction dust (15.1 μg m−3) increased due to the significant coarse particle component associated with these latter sources
Hourly time-resolved major trace elemental composition in coarse (PM2.5–10) and fine (PM2.5) particulate matter were measured during autumn 2014 at an industrial city Foshan, in the Pearl River Delta region
Summary
Ambient particulate matter (PM) is ubiquitously suspended in the atmosphere, which profoundly affects human health, visibility and global climate. Limited studies have applied PMF to determine the trace element emission sources at a high time (hourly) resolution (Gao et al, 2016; Dall’Osto et al, 2013; Pancras et al, 2013; Moreno et al, 2011; Crilley et al, 2017; Visser et al, 2015a; Ancelet et al, 2012, 2014). We have collected hourly samples of fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM2.5–10) particulate matter at an important industrial city, Foshan, in the PRD region. We applied a PMF receptor model (EPA PMF 5.0) to characterize the PM sources in Foshan city utilizing the size-resolved hourly elemental data and other gas-phase pollutants. We assessed the human health risk exposure to selected trace elements in PM released from specific sources, as identified by the PMF model. Our results provide valuable information for optimizing the corresponding management and control strategies of PM pollution in the PRD region and cities in other regions
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