Air pollutants and the characterization of the organic content of aerosol particles in a mixed industrial/semi-rural area in central Italy

Abstract

Both regulated and unregulated air pollutants were detected during an intensive seasonal sampling campaign in a mixed industrial/semi-rural area on the outskirts of Rome, Italy, at two sites located opposite a hospital waste incinerator, downwind according to the direction of the prevailing local winds. Concentrations of pollutants were significantly lower than in urban atmospheres. The composition of particulate organic material indicated a heavy biogenic impact, accompanied by a lower contribution from petroleum-related processes. Both PAH and nitro-PAH group compositions of particulates were used to assess the nature and relative importance of sources. Both sites showed that different and diffuse sources contributed to local pollution with a significant contribution from traffic, proving that the hospital waste incinerator was not the main pollution source in this area. Among unregulated compounds, a series of positional isomers of nitro-PAHs and other organic compounds associated with particulate matter were investigated. In particular, 1- and 3-nitrophenanthrene identification was carried out, and they proved to be the most abundant nitro-PAHs.

Effect of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Carbon Black Particles on Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Secretion: Impact of PAH Coating Onto Particles

“…It is important to note that PAH concentrations used in this study were largely (at least one order of magnitude) below those used by other Investigators. Indeed, the levels used here were chosen based upon concentrations of the PAHs commonly found in PM (Baulig et al, 2004;Di Filippo et al, 2007). Under these conditions, it was shown here that B[a]P was able to induce secretion of IL-1β, IL-8, and IL-12, with or without LPS stimulation; the only exception to this stimulatory outcome was with IL-10.…”

“…of DEP (SRM 2975) and urban dust (SRM 1649a) revealed that apart from benzo [a]pyrene (B[a]P), benzo [b]fluoranthene (B[b]F) and pyrene (Pyr) are also quantitatively important; each of these PAH has also been detected on PM 2.5 in several European cities (Baulig et al, 2004;Di Filippo et al, 2007). As such, B[a]P, B[b]F and Pyr could significantly contribute to the toxic effects of air pollution.…”

Simultaneous determination of typical substituted and parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water and solid matrix by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…Silica cartridges [22,27], alumina cartridges [27] or HPLC [14] have always been used during the clean-up procedure. Although there have been some research focusing on the determination of SPAHs in air and soil samples, especially a single type of SPAHs, such as NPAHs [29,30] or OPAHs [31], and a recent study solely focusing on the determination of NPAHs in aqueous samples [32], the analytical methods of SPAHs in the natural water environment have not been well documented. Moreover, the existing methods used in air and soil samples are rather complicated.…”

Evaluating the mutagenic potential of aerosol organic compounds using informatics-based screening

“…Nitro-and oxoaromatic compounds are by far the best-studied mutagenic components of SOA (e.g. Enya et al, 1997;Di Filippo et al, 2007;Huang et al, 2014). They can form upon the oxidation of primary organic compounds which can be also mutagenic (PAHs) or that are just non-toxic, such as methoxy-phenols in biomass burning emissions (Kroflič et al, 2015).…”