Sources of atmospheric aerosol from long-term measurements (5years) of chemical composition in Athens, Greece

Paraskevopoulou, Despina; Liakakou, Eleni; Gerasopoulos, E.; Mihalopoulos, N.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.04.022

Cited by 111 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…Surprisingly, improvements in overall air quality have been reported by PARASKEVOPOULOU et al [45], who took recordings in a 5-year period following the crisis (May 2008 to April 2013) of the concentrations of major pollutants, such as particles with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm and 10 μm and sulfate, which declined rapidly in urban areas such as Athens [1,45]. Low economic and industrial activity during the financial crisis has contributed to this decrease in air pollution [45]. Improvements in overall air quality are likely to have an important effect on COPD burden in the future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In 2015, the proportion of deaths (due to COPD, lung cancer and lower respiratory infections) attributable to ozone in Greece was estimated to be ⩾2.60 per 100 000 people, among the highest globally [44]. Surprisingly, improvements in overall air quality have been reported by PARASKEVOPOULOU et al [45], who took recordings in a 5-year period following the crisis (May 2008 to April 2013) of the concentrations of major pollutants, such as particles with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm and 10 μm and sulfate, which declined rapidly in urban areas such as Athens [1,45]. Low economic and industrial activity during the financial crisis has contributed to this decrease in air pollution [45].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study

et al. 2018

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Poverty and low socioeconomic status have been associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The current financial crisis has forced millions back into poverty. Greece is one of the countries hit the hardest, and is in the middle of a deep ongoing collapse. There have been early reports stating the apparent effects of the Greek downturn on respiratory health. This review summarises the overall impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden throughout the period of economic downturn by analysing the case study of Greece. In all levels of the healthcare system, current economic restrictions have reduced the capacity to prevent, diagnose and treat COPD in parallel with current higher detection rates of COPD. Remarkably, expenditure on healthcare has been reduced by >25%, resulting in major healthcare equipment shortages. Lower wages (by up to 20%) and higher co-payments of up to 25% of a drug's purchase price have led to patients struggling to afford inhaled medications. Treatment nonadherence has been reported, resulting in 11.5% more exacerbations and 14.1% more hospitalisations annually, while the mean cost per severe COPD exacerbation has been approximated as €2600. Greece is a noteworthy example illustrating how COPD burden, quality of care and patients' outcome can be affected by economic crisis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study

et al. 2018

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“…In Southern Europe, domestic biomass burning is a much less frequent practice. However, recent studies conducted in Mediterranean urban areas have identified residential biomass burning as an increasing practice contributing to air quality degradation Paraskevopoulou et al, 2015;Sarigiannis et al, 2015;Nava et al, 2015). In addition to biomass burning for residential heating, burning of agricultural waste is a common practice that releases significant amount of gaseous and particulate pollutants into the atmosphere (Andreae and Merlet, 2001;Dambruoso et al, 2014;Kostenidou et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Titos

Águila

Cazorla

et al. 2017

Science of The Total Environment

129

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Biomass burning (BB) is a significant source of atmospheric particles in many parts of the world. Whereas many studies have demonstrated the importance of BB emissions in central and northern Europe, especially in rural areas, its impact in urban air quality of southern European countries has been sparsely investigated. In this study, highly time resolved multi-wavelength absorption coefficients together with levoglucosan (BB tracer) mass concentrations were combined to apportion carbonaceous aerosol sources. TheAethalometer model takes advantage of the different spectral behaviour of BB and fossil fuel (FF) combustion aerosols. The model was found to be more sensitive to the assumed value of the aerosol Ångström exponent (AAE) for FF (AAEff) than to the AAE for BB (AAEbb). As result of various sensitivity tests the model was optimized with AAEff = 1.1 and AAEbb = 2. The Aethalometer model and levoglucosan tracer estimates were in good agreement. The Aethalometer model was further applied to data from three sites in Granada urban area to evaluate the spatial variation of CMff and CMbb (carbonaceous matter from FF or BB origin, respectively) concentrations within the city. The results showed that CMbb was lower in the city centre while it has an unexpected profound impact on the CM levels measured in the suburbs (about 40%). Analysis of BB tracers with respect to wind speed suggested that BB was dominated by sources outside the city, to the west in a rural area. Distinguishing whether it corresponds to agricultural waste burning or with biomass burning for domestic heating was not possible. This study also shows that although traffic restrictions measures contribute to reduce carbonaceous concentrations, the extent of the reduction is very local. Other sources such as BB, which can contribute to CM as much as traffic emissions, should be targeted to reduce air pollution.

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“…Measurements were conducted from 16 October 2015 to 15 February 2016, at the urban background station of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA,37.97° N,23.72° E, 105 m a.s.l) at Thissio, considered as receptor of pollution plumes of different origins (Paraskevopoulou et al, 2015). The station is located in the historical center of Athens, on top of a hill (Lofos Nimfon), surrounded by a pedestrian zone, a residential area and by the Filopappou and Acropolis Hills.…”

Section: Sampling Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since then significant changes have unambiguously occurred in NMHCs sources in Athens. For instance Gratsea et al (2017) reported significantly decrease in carbon monoxide (CO) levels from traffic due to car fleet renewal, fuel improvement and metro line extension, while new sources of pollution emerged, especially after 2012, due to uncontrolled wood burning for domestic heating (Saffari et al, 2013;Paraskevopoulou et al, 2015;Kaltsonoudis et al, 2016a;Fourtziou et al, 2017). The latest work on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in Athens was performed by 25 Kaltsonoudis et al (2016) it was limited to one month monitoring during summer and winter also and contained no measurements of light compounds from the NMHCs group.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Non Methane Hydrocarbons variability in Athens during winter-time: The role of traffic and heating

Panopoulou¹,

Liakakou²,

Gros³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract. Non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) play an important role in atmospheric chemistry, contributing to ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation. They can also serve as tracers for various sources such as traffic, solvents, heating and 15 vegetation. The current work presents, for the first time to our knowledge, time-resolved, uninterrupted data of NMHCs, from two to six carbon atoms, during a period of five months (mid-October 2015 to mid-February 2016) in the Great Athens Area (GAA), Greece. The measured NMHC levels are among the highest reported in literature for the Mediterranean area and the majority of the compounds demonstrates a remarkable day to day variability. Their levels increase by up to factor of four from autumn (October-November) to winter (December-February). Local meteorology and especially wind speed seems 20 to control the variability of NMHC levels, with an increase up to a factor of 10 occurring under low wind speed (<3 m s -1 ), reflecting the impact of local sources rather than long range transport. All NMHCs demonstrated a pronounced bimodal, diurnal pattern with a morning peak followed by a second one before midnight. The amplitude (intensity) of both peaks is gradually increasing towards winter, respectively to autumn, by a factor of 3 to 6 and nicely follow that of carbon monoxide (CO), indicating contribution from additional sources e.g. heating. By comparing the NMHC diurnal variability with that of 25 black carbon (BC), its fractions associated with wood burning (BC wb ) and fossil fuel combustion (BC ff ), as well as with source profiles we conclude that the morning peak is attributed to traffic while the night one mainly to heating. However, the present data set does not allow for quantification of the relative contribution of fossil fuel and wood burning for heating purposes, although tracers and source profiles clearly indicate the presence of both sources.

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Sources of atmospheric aerosol from long-term measurements (5years) of chemical composition in Athens, Greece

Cited by 111 publications

References 99 publications

Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study

Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study

Spatial and temporal variability of carbonaceous aerosols: Assessing the impact of biomass burning in the urban environment

Non Methane Hydrocarbons variability in Athens during winter-time: The role of traffic and heating

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