Abstract
This study validates the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in microgram levels of particulate matter (PM) collected on filters by two low-flow rate, real-time monitors, microPEM™ and microAeth®. Particle-associated PAHs were analyzed by a coupling of a gas chromatograph to a sensitive, atmospheric-pressure laser ionization-mass spectrometer. Air particulate samples were collected over the course of one or two days in the living room of a fourth-floor apartment in New York City. Three types of samplers, the two aforementioned personal samplers and a high-flow rate pump (4 liters per minute), were operated side by side, and three samples of each type were collected during each sampling period. Intrasampler agreement as measured by relative standard deviation (RSD) was within 1% to 18%. After background subtraction, total PAH measured by all three sampler types had good agreement (R=0.99). This ability to accurately characterize personal PAH exposure in archived filters collected by these real-time samplers could provide additional important PAH exposure information that can benefit many environmental health studies using these monitors.
Highlights
Personal monitors are widely accepted as the gold standard in air pollution exposure assessment
GC-APLI proved to be a highly sensitive instrument for ultra-trace level measurement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in low mass particulate matter (PM) samples collected from personal samplers (Figure 1), consistent with other reports [24,28]
Several isomers of benzofluoranthenes and dibenzanthracenes were properly separated in the chromatograms, indicating the variety of PAHs observed in these samples
Summary
Personal monitors are widely accepted as the gold standard in air pollution exposure assessment. Two types of samplers collected PM2.5 on Teflon filters, one from a black box pump (BB) with conventional cyclone (model GK 2.05, BGI, Inc.) at 4 ± 0.4 L/min and the other from a microPEMTM (μPEM) personal exposure monitor (RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC) operated at 0.4 ± 0.04 L/min.
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