Long term PM2.5 trends in the Australian industrial city of Newcastle: a 15-year study from 1998 to 2013
Eduard Stelcer A B , David D. Cohen A and Armand J. Atanacio AA Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC, NSW, 2232, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: esx@ansto.gov.au
Environmental Chemistry 11(6) 644-652 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN14090
Submitted: 30 April 2014 Accepted: 9 June 2014 Published: 25 September 2014
Environmental context. Long-term exposure to fine particle air pollution has significant implications for human health. At a mixed urban–industrial site in Newcastle, Australia, we identified contributions from individual industrial aerosol sources in addition to the more common aerosol sources such as soil, sea and smoke. These results are significant for the assessment and management of fine particulate air pollution in the Newcastle air shed.
Abstract. A long-term, large dataset approach combining standard accelerator-based ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques with positive matrix factorisation (PMF) analysis to determine the sources and trends of fine particle pollution in the Newcastle NSW, Australia is discussed. Over 1500 samples of particle matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) were collected between February 1998 and December 2013 and analysed using IBA techniques to obtain the concentration of 22 different elements from hydrogen to lead. The PM2.5 15-year average mass at the sampling site was 8.11 µg m–3. Statistical PMF analysis was applied to this large dataset to quantitatively determine nine source fingerprints; soil, secondary sulfate, sea, smoke, industrial processes (specifically related to calcium, manganese and iron) and two different automobile sources. Significant step-like reductions of 98, 79 and 69 %, over and above regular seasonal variations, were clearly observed in the industrial-Mn, industrial-Fe and automobile sources during this time period. These trends showed excellent correlation with the cessation of large industrial operations in the local area and clearly demonstrate the advantage of long-term aerosol analysis for monitoring and managing fine particle air pollution sources on a local scale.
Additional keywords: ion beam analysis, positive matrix factorisation, source fingerprints.
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