Air, Volume 1, Issue 4 (December 2023) – 3 articles

Source apportionment of observed PM_2.5 concentrations is of growing interest as communities seek ways to improve their air quality. We evaluated publicly available PM_2.5 data from the USEPA in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area to determine the contributions from various PM_2.5 sources to the total PM_2.5 observed. The approach combines interpolation and fixed effect regression models to disentangle background from local PM_2.5 contributions. These models found that January had the lowest total PM_2.5 mean concentrations, ranging from 5.0 µg/m³ to 6.4 µg/m³, depending on monitoring location. July had the highest total PM_2.5 mean concentrations, ranging from 8.7 µg/m³ to 11.1 µg/m³, depending on the location. January also had the lowest mean local PM_2.5 concentrations, ranging from 2.6 µg/m³ to 3.6 µg/m³, depending on the location. Despite having the lowest local PM_2.5 concentrations, January had the highest local attributions [51–57%]. July had the highest mean local PM_2.5 concentrations, ranging from 2.9 µg/m³ to 4.1 µg/m³, depending on the location. Despite having the highest local PM_2.5 concentrations, July had the lowest local attributions [33–37%]. These results suggest that local contributions have a limited effect on total PM_2.5 concentrations and that the observed seasonal changes are likely the result of background influence, as opposed to modest changes in local contributions. Overall, the results demonstrate that in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area, approximately half of the observed total PM_2.5 is from background PM_2.5 sources and half is from local PM_2.5 sources_. Among the local PM_2.5 source contributions in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area, our analysis shows that the vast majority is from non-point sources, such as from the transportation sector. While local point sources may have some incremental site-specific local contribution, such contributions are not clearly distinguishable in the data evaluated. We present this approach as a roadmap for disentangling PM_2.5 concentrations at different spatial levels (i.e., the local, regional, or state level) and from various sectors (i.e., residential, industrial, transport, etc.). This roadmap can help decision-makers to optimize mitigatory, regulatory, and/or community efforts towards reducing total community PM_2.5 exposure. Full article

The urban areas of Pakistan exhibit some of the world’s highest levels of air pollution, primarily due to sub-2.5 μm particulate emissions. This issue significantly impairs both the country’s economy and the quality of life of its residents. Road transport is a significant contributor to anthropogenic air pollution but there are discrepancies about the extent of its share. Source apportionment and sectoral inventory studies attribute anywhere between 5 and >80% of the total air pollution to vehicular sources. This uncertainty propagates into the transport policy interventions that are informed by such studies and can thus hinder the achievement of desired pollution mitigation targets. In an effort to reconcile such discrepancies and guide future studies and policy-making efforts, this paper critically reviews source apportionment studies conducted in the urban centres of Pakistan over the past two decades. The strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are compared, and results from the studies are discussed based on the emissions profile of Pakistan’s automotive fleet that emerges. Inconsistencies in the reporting of pollutant concentrations and interpreting their impacts without accounting for the relative disease burden of different pollutant species are found to be the major reasons for the large variations in the reported sectoral shares. At the end, a framework for regular air pollution monitoring and source tracking is proposed in which high-fidelity receptor-based studies inform lower-fidelity but economical sectoral inventory assessments. Full article

The impact of relative humidity (RH) on organic new particle formation (NPF) from the ozonolysis of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) remains an area of active debate. Previous reports provide contradictory results, indicating both the depression and enhancement of NPF under conditions of high RH. Herein, we report on the impact of RH on NPF from the dark ozonolysis of cis-3-hexenyl acetate (CHA), a green-leaf volatile (GLV) emitted by vegetation. We show that RH inhibits NPF by this BVOC, essentially shutting it down at RH levels > 1%. While the mechanism for the inhibition of NPF remains unclear, we demonstrate that it is likely not due to increased losses of CHA to the humid chamber walls. New oxidation products dominant under humid conditions are proposed that, based on estimated vapor pressures (VPs), should enhance NPF; however, it is possible that the vapor phase concentration of these low-volatility products is not sufficient to initiate NPF. Furthermore, the reaction of C₃-excited state Criegee intermediates (CIs) with water may lead to the formation of small carboxylic acids that do not contribute to NPF. This hypothesis is supported by experiments with quaternary O₃ + CHA + α-pinene + RH systems, which showed decreases in total α-pinene-derived NPF at ~0% RH and subsequent recovery at elevated RH. Full article