Long-range transport of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from China to Japan

Factors affecting atmospheric 1-, 2-nitropyrenes and 2-nitrofluoranthene in winter at Noto peninsula, a remote background site, Japan

“…Furthermore, PAHs as well as acid rain and Asian Dust (Yellow Sand) were long-range transported from the Asian continent to Japan during the winter heating period of North China (Tamamura et al, 2007;Yang et al, 2007). The long-range transport of air masses from the Asian Continent to Japan can be explained by the atmospheric pressure pattern of Northeast Asia in cold seasons (Terada et al, 2002).…”

“…Atmospheric PAHs and most NPAHs, such as 1-NP, mainly originate from imperfect combustion of organic matter such as petroleum, coal and biomass. For example, urban atmospheric concentrations of 1,3-, 1,6-and 1,8-dinitoropyrenes and 1-NP are strongly correlated with traffic volume (Hayakawa et al, 1995), and a 1-NP metabolite in human urine is strongly correlated with exposure to diesel exhaust (Toriba et al, 2007). In addition, some NPAHs such as 2-nitrofluoranthene (2-NFR) and 2-nitropyrene (2-NP) are formed in the atmosphere.…”

“…Ltd., Saitama, Japan) with a quartz fiber filter (8 inch × 10 inch, 2500QAT-UP, Pallflex Products, Putnam, CT, USA) at a flow rate of 700 L/min continuously from January 13, 2006to December 28, 2007. According to previous reports (Yang et al, 2007), result of preliminary test and other information, the filters were changed newly every week to minimalize secondary formation of NPAHs. The description of the sampling design is presented in Supplementary Material Section 1.…”

“…The system calculates three-dimensional air mass trajectories (height, longitude and latitude) with a time resolution of 6 h and horizontal resolution 2.5° × 2.5° and vertical resolution was 15 equal levels from surface pressure to 10 hPa (Yang et al, 2007).…”

“…Because NPAHs are highly-reactive (Fan et al, 1996;Feilberg and Nielsen, 2000;Kameda et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2012;Miet et al, 2009a, b and c;Ringuet et al, 2012b;Zhang et al, 2011), and because several of their derivatives, such as hydroxylated NPAHs, are considered toxic (Kameda et al, 2008), monitoring atmospheric NPAHs is important to clarify how they transported from Northeast Asia to other areas. In order to predict movements of atmospheric particulates from Northeast Asia, it is helpful to monitor background sites such as the Noto Peninsula, Japan (Tsapakis and Stephanou, 2007;Yang et al, 2007). In the past, we did not monitor atmospheric NPAHs on the Noto Peninsula because their concentrations were too low to be detected by our conventional HPLC-chemiluminescence detection (CLD) system (Hayakawa et al, 2001;Murahashi and Hayakwa, 1997;Tang et al, 2003).…”