『Abstract
Understanding and controlling air pollution in highly populated
areas is very important, although interpreting the levels of gaseous
pollutants and airborne particulate matter is complicated by dominant
natural and anthropogenic emissions, micro-meteorological processes,
and chemical reactions which take place directly in the atmosphere.
For this reason, it is very difficult to relate the characteristics
of air pollution to one or more specific emission sources. The
aim of this paper is to detect associations among elements and
organic compounds emitted from specific sources by means of chemical
analyses, statistical processing of data, seasonal evolution study,
and geochemical considerations to trace their origin. a detailed
characterization of air quality during the period September 2000-September
2001 was carried out in three locations of the Venice region:
A heavy traffic urban site, a public park, and the island centre
of the city of Venice. Twenty-eight inorganic elements, four polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons., CO and benzene were quantified and processed
by a statistical procedure based on factor analysis considering
variations on a seasonal basis. Results show the presence of associations
between elements and compounds with the same behaviour in all
sampling points. This indicates that several pollutants originate
from a common source, and are then “diluted” throughout the study
area, maintaining the imprint of their origin. Pt, polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, CO and benzene originating from the exhaust
gas of vehicles are all linked in the traffic factor, whereas
Cd is associated with Se, having a common source in industrial
processes.
Keywords: Elemental composition; Lagoon of Venice; Particulate
matter; PM10; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs)』
1. Introduction
2. Experimental section
2.1. Sample collection
2.2. Analytical techniques
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Micro-meteorology
3.2. Major chemical constituents
3.3. Source identification
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgment
References