Investigation Of Metal Particles In Aerosols

Air pollution is a major environmental concern that has a wide range of negative impacts on human health and the natural environment. One aspect of air pollution that has received significant attention in recent years is the presence of metal pollutants, such as lead and cadmium. Landskrona for a long time had problems with high concentrations of such heavy metals in the air. To investigate the air quality in terms of heavy metals in Landskrona, high time resolution multi-metals monitor (Xact 625i) was used to measure ambient air in two different locations (Urban background station at Lund city and rural background station at Hyltemossa) between 15 September and 3 October and between 19 October and 19 November 2022 respectively. Using online X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy of 240 minutes time resolutions. The results from the XAC show, elevated concentrations of Cu, Ni, Cr, and Pb were measured several times in both the city of Lund and Hyltemossa. Compared to previous campaigns for urban emissions, there is a clear downward trend in average element concentrations. In contrast, compared to the 2008 average concentrations for Cl and Cu from 2017, 2008, and 1988, there is an increase, but this is likely due to more winds from ocean areas in this study giving relatively higher contribution from the sea spray source. For the rural background measurements in Hyltemossa, V, Cr, Ni, Cu, Sr, and Pb were higher on average than for the Vavihill rural measurements during 2000. This was likely due to more frequent winds from continental polluted regions in this study. A few individual samples with high levels of heavy metal concentrations can significantly affect the overall average concentrations. Although these elevated concentrations do not exceed the annual limit set by environmental quality standards, it does not necessarily mean they are safe. The trajectories suggest that these heavy metal concentrations mostly come from long-range sources in Central Europe, but there could also be local or near-regional sources, such as wood combustion. However, this study was unable to confirm this, besides the wood combustion source which is considered as local or near-regional.