Size- and density-distributions and sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban road dust

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in size- and density-fractionated road dust were measured to identify the important fractions in urban runoff and to analyse their sources. Road dust was collected from a residential area (Shakujii) and a heavy traffic area (Hongo Street). The sampling of road dust from the residential area was conducted twice in different seasons (autumn and winter). The collected road dust was separated into three or four size-fractions and further fractionated into light (<1.7 g/cm 3) and heavy (>1.7 g/cm 3) fractions by using cesium chloride solution. Light particles constituted only 4.0 ± 1.4%, 0.69 ± 0.03% and 3.4 ± 1.0% of the road dust by weight for Shakujii (November), Shakujii (February) and Hongo Street, respectively but contained 28 ± 10%, 33 ± 3% and 44 ± 8% of the total PAHs, respectively. The PAH contents in the light fractions were 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than those in the heavy fractions. In the light fractions, the 12PAH contents in February were significantly higher than the 12PAH contents in November ( P < 0.01), whereas in the heavy fractions, no significant difference was found ( P > 0.05). Cluster analysis revealed that there was a significant difference in the PAH profiles between locations rather than between size-fractions, density-fractions and sampling times. Multiple regression analysis indicated that asphalt/pavement was the major source of Shakujii road dust, and that tyre and diesel vehicle exhaust were the major sources of finer and coarser fractions collected from Hongo Street road dust, respectively.