Spatial and seasonal distribution of aerosol chemical components in New York City: (2) Road dust and other tracers of traffic-generated air pollution

Abstract

We describe spatial and temporal patterns of seven chemical elements commonly observed in fine particulate matter (PM) and thought to be linked to roadway emissions that were measured at residential locations in New York City (NYC). These elements, that is, Si, Al, Ti, Fe, Ba, Br, and black carbon (BC), were found to have significant spatial and temporal variability at our 10 residential PM 2.5 sampling locations. We also describe pilot study data of near-roadway samples of both PM 10À2.5 and PM 2.5 chemical elements of roadway emissions. PM 2.5 element concentrations collected on the George Washington Bridge (GWB) connecting NYC and New Jersey were higher that similar elemental concentration measured at residential locations. Coarseparticle elements (within PM 10À2.5 ) on the GWB were 10-100 times higher in concentration than their PM 2.5 counterparts. Roadway elements were well correlated with one another in both the PM 2.5 and PM 10À2.5 fractions, suggesting common sources. The same elements in the PM 2.5 collected at residential locations were less correlated, suggesting either different sources or different processing mechanisms for each element. Despite the fact that these elements are only a fraction of total PM 2.5 or PM 10À2.5 mass, the results have important implications for near-roadway exposures where elements with known causal links to health effects are shown to be at elevated concentrations in both the PM 2.5 and PM 10À2.5 size ranges.

Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in New York City community garden soils: Potential sources and influential factors

“…The similarity among black carbon concentrations in most sample types (Table ) is consistent with previous reports about the atmospheric distribution of small particles (as black carbon is a component of such matter) for the New York City region . The notion that pyrogenic PAHs in soil have their origin in the deposition of atmospheric particles was further supported by the strong, significant associations between black carbon and soil PAHs shown in Figure .…”

Constrained source apportionment of coarse particulate matter and selected trace elements in three cities from the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis

“…One major challenge for chronic epidemiological studies is in accurately describing the long-term spatial gradients in coarse mode mass and species concentrations within urban areas. Recent work has focused on characterizing PM 10-2.5 spatial concentration gradients (Hwang et al 2008; Godoy et al, 2009; Thornburg et al 2009; Moore et al 2010; Cheung et al 2011; Eeftens et al, 2012, 2012a; Clements et al 2012; Strak et al 2011) and developing models to allow spatial interpolation (Yanosky et al 2009; Peltier et al 2011; Eeftens, et al 2012a). Another challenge is to characterize the sources that influence these gradients as well as the species that are associated with these sources.…”

Optical Properties of Aerosols and Implications for Radiative Effects in Beijing During the Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit 2014

“…This factor was the second largest contributor to b ext , accounting for 21% and 27% during the noncontrol and APEC control periods, respectively. Factor 4, with loadings of EC, Br, Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, and Fe, was thought to be associated with traffic‐related emissions, likely including the resuspension of previously deposited anthropogenic particles (Y. Chen et al, ; Peltier et al, ; Yu et al, ; Zikova et al, ). This factor accounted for 19% and 9% of b ext during the noncontrol and APEC control periods, respectively.…”