A yearlong monitoring campaign of polycyclic aromatic compounds and other air pollutants at three sites in Sweden: Source identification, in vitro toxicity and human health risk assessment Show others and affiliations
2023 (English) In: Chemosphere, ISSN 0045-6535, E-ISSN 1879-1298, Vol. 332, article id 138862Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Air pollution is a complex mixture of gases and particulate matter (PM) with local and non-local emission sources, resulting in spatiotemporal variability in concentrations and composition, and thus associated health risks. To study this in the greater Stockholm area, a yearlong monitoring campaign with in situ measurements of PM10 , PM1 , black carbon, NOx , O3 , and PM10 -sampling was performed. The locations included an Urban and a Rural background site and a Highway site. Chemical analysis of PM10 was performed to quantify monthly levels of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), which together with other air pollution data were used for source apportionment and health risk assessment. Organic extracts from PM10 were tested for oxidative potential in human bronchial epithelial cells. Strong seasonal patterns were found for most air pollutants including PACs, with higher levels during the winter months than summer e.g., highest levels of PM10 were detected in March at the Highway site (33.2 μg/m3 ) and lowest in May at the Rural site (3.6 μg/m3 ). In general, air pollutant levels at the sites were in the order Highway > Urban > Rural. Multivariate analysis identified several polar PACs, including 6H-Benzo[cd]pyren-6-one, as possible discriminatory markers for these sites. The main sources of particulate pollution for all sites were vehicle exhaust and biomass burning emissions, although diesel exhaust was an important source at the Highway site. In vitro results agreed with air pollutant levels, with higher oxidative potential from the winter samples. Estimated lung cancer cases were in the order PM10 > NO2 > PACs for all sites, and with less evident seasonal differences than in vitro results. In conclusion, our study presents novel seasonal data for many PACs together with air pollutants more traditionally included in air quality monitoring. Moreover, seasonal differences in air pollutant levels correlated with differences in toxicity in vitro .
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages 2023. Vol. 332, article id 138862
Keywords [en]
PM10, Black carbon, Nitrogen oxides, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Source apportionment, Positive matrix factorization
National Category
Environmental Sciences Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences Biochemistry Molecular Biology
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-216932 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138862 ISI: 001006900400001 PubMedID: 37150457 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85158878663 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-216932 DiVA, id: diva2:1755244
Funder Swedish Research Council Formas, 2018-00475 Swedish Research Council Formas, 2019-00582 Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, NV219-19-015 2023-05-062023-05-062025-02-20 Bibliographically approved