engleski

Carcinogenic organic compounds in PM1 particle fraction at an urban location with “canyon” effect

Street traffic has become one of the main air pollution sources in urbanized regions all over the world. Previous studies have shown that combustion of various fuels in metropolitan areas produces airborne particulate matter on which different compounds are absorbed. Carbonaceous aerosol is an important constituent of fine particles. Carbonaceous aerosol can be classified into organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC). OC is a complex mixture of hundreds of organic compounds that are produced directly or by atmospheric chemical processes. Within OC, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are dominant carcinogenic components of atmospheric pollution.The aim of this study was to determine the levels of eleven polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in PM1 fraction of particle matter.Measurements were carried out from January to December 2019 at a city street location surroun-ded by tall buildings. This location has a “canyon” effect where pollutants strongly accumulate in a small area due to weak ventilation. 24-hour samples of the PM1 particle fraction were collected on quartz filters from about 55 m3 air using a low-volume sampler. The analysis was performed using a high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) with a fluorescence detector.The average mass concentration of total PAHs was 2.554 ng m-3, 0.812 ng m-3, 8.167 ng m-3 and 20.381 ng m-3 for spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. The total concentrations of the eleven PAHs ranged from 0.069 ng m-3 to 66.296 ng m-3, with an average annual value of 8.198 ng m-3. Based on the obtained mass concentrations of PAHs their contribution

PAHs ; HPLC ; EC ; OC

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