Source and respiratory deposition of trace elements in PM2.5 at an urban location in Dhaka city

Abstract

Air pollution has been creating severe environmental crises in Dhaka. This city ranks at the top among the major cities of the world. A multidimensional study is needed to assess the severity of this crisis. This study aims to determine the sources of trace elements in PM2.5 and their effects on health. We measured concentrations of 15 trace elements in PM2.5 every hour for eight days using a well-equipped mobile air quality monitoring system integrated with an automatic sampling system (AQMS, Horiba, Japan). We analyzed the concentrations of the trace elements to identify their potential sources and diurnal variation and to compute the respiratory deposition dose of the trace elements to estimate the health risks they pose. The daily average concentration of PM2.5 was higher than the allowable limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Among the trace elements, sulfur had the highest concentration and vanadium was the lowest. We found out that concentrations of the elements were the highest during the middle of the day and the lowest during midnight. Four source profiles of PM2.5 were identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF). Soil dust with sulfur-rich petroleum contributed about 65 %, industrial and non-exhaust emissions about 5 % each, and heavy engine oil combustion about 25 % to air pollution. Air mass backward trajectory analysis indicated that Dhaka's air contains both local and transboundary pollution. According to the determined respiratory deposition dose of the elements, males had higher deposition than females during heavy exercise. Sulfur and vanadium have the highest and lowest respiratory deposition dose, respectively. The highest amount of deposition occurred in the upper airways. We expect that this study will help professionals develop effective strategies to prevent and mitigate the emission of air pollutants.