WILL AIR QUALITY IN SYDNEY MEET PROPOSED AUSTRALIAN FINE PARTICLE NEPM GUIDELINES?

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 233-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDUARD STELCER ◽  
OLGA HAWAS ◽  
DAVID COHEN ◽  
ADAM SARBUTT ◽  
DAVID BUTTON
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Trace Elements ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Fine Particle ◽  
New South ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Beam Analysis ◽  
Us Epa ◽  
Rural Sites

Since 1991 ANSTO's ion beam analysis (IBA) laboratory has been sampling fine atmospheric particles every Wednesday and Sunday at urban and rural sites in New South Wales. Multi-elemental accelerator-based IBA techniques were used to characterise major components and significant trace elements with minimum detectable limits close to 1 ng/m3. Observed mass concentrations will be compared with air quality US EPA standards and proposed Australian fine particle NEPM guidelines. Trace elements strongly associated with source fingerprints responsible for high air pollution will also be discussed in this paper.

scholarly journals Subtle Changes or Dramatic Perceptions of Air Pollution in Sydney during COVID-19

Environments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Peter Brimblecombe ◽  
Yonghang Lai
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
New South ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Significant Difference

The COVID-19 pandemic made it critical to limit the spread of the disease by enforcing human isolation, restricting travel and reducing social activities. Dramatic improvements to air quality, especially NO2, have often characterised places under COVID-19 restrictions. Air pollution measurements in Sydney in April 2019 and during the lockdown period in April 2020 show reduced daily averaged NO2 concentrations: 8.52 ± 1.92 and 7.85 ± 2.92 ppb, though not significantly so (p1~0.15) and PM2.5 8.91 ± 4.94 and 7.95 ± 2.64 µg m−3, again a non-significant difference (p1~0.18). Satellite imagery suggests changes that parallel those at ground level, but the column densities averaged over space and time, in false-colour, are more dramatic. Changed human mobility could be traced in increasing times spent at home, assessed from Google Mobility Reports and mirrored in decreased traffic flow on a major road, suggesting compliance with the restrictions. Electricity demand for the State of New South Wales was low under lockdown in early April 2020, but it recovered rapidly. Analysis of the uses of search terms: bushfires, air quality, haze and air pollution using Google Trends showed strong links between bushfires and pollution-related terms. The smoke from bushfires in late 2019 may well have added to the general impression of improved air quality during lockdown, despite only modest changes in the ground level measurements. This gives hints that successful regulation of air quality requires maintaining a delicate balance between our social perceptions and the physical reality.

scholarly journals A Clean Air Plan for Sydney: An Overview of the Special Issue on Air Quality in New South Wales

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Paton-Walsh ◽  
Peter Rayner ◽  
Jack Simmons ◽  
Sonya L. Fiddes ◽  
Robyn Schofield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Clean Air

This paper presents a summary of the key findings of the special issue of Atmosphere on Air Quality in New South Wales and discusses the implications of the work for policy makers and individuals. This special edition presents new air quality research in Australia undertaken by (or in association with) the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes hub, which is funded by the National Environmental Science Program on behalf of the Australian Government’s Department of the Environment and Energy. Air pollution in Australian cities is generally low, with typical concentrations of key pollutants at much lower levels than experienced in comparable cities in many other parts of the world. Australian cities do experience occasional exceedances in ozone and PM2.5 (above air pollution guidelines), as well as extreme pollution events, often as a result of bushfires, dust storms, or heatwaves. Even in the absence of extreme events, natural emissions play a significant role in influencing the Australian urban environment, due to the remoteness from large regional anthropogenic emission sources. By studying air quality in Australia, we can gain a greater understanding of the underlying atmospheric chemistry and health risks in less polluted atmospheric environments, and the health benefits of continued reduction in air pollution. These conditions may be representative of future air quality scenarios for parts of the Northern Hemisphere, as legislation and cleaner technologies reduce anthropogenic air pollution in European, American, and Asian cities. However, in many instances, current legislation regarding emissions in Australia is significantly more lax than in other developed countries, making Australia vulnerable to worsening air pollution in association with future population growth. The need to avoid complacency is highlighted by recent epidemiological research, reporting associations between air pollution and adverse health outcomes even at air pollutant concentrations that are lower than Australia’s national air quality standards. Improving air quality is expected to improve health outcomes at any pollution level, with specific benefits projected for reductions in long-term exposure to average PM2.5 concentrations.

scholarly journals Dust Transport from Inland Australia and Its Impact on Air Quality and Health on the Eastern Coast of Australia during the February 2019 Dust Storm

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Emilie Aragnou ◽  
Sean Watt ◽  
Hiep Nguyen Duc ◽  
Cassandra Cheeseman ◽  
Matthew Riley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Dust Storm ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
The State ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Storm Event ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Dust Storm Event

Dust storms originating from Central Australia and western New South Wales frequently cause high particle concentrations at many sites across New South Wales, both inland and along the coast. This study focussed on a dust storm event in February 2019 which affected air quality across the state as detected at many ambient monitoring stations in the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) air quality monitoring network. The WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecast Model—Chemistry) model is used to study the formation, dispersion and transport of dust across the state of New South Wales (NSW, Australia). Wildfires also happened in northern NSW at the same time of the dust storm in February 2019, and their emissions are taken into account in the WRF-Chem model by using Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) as emission input. The model performance is evaluated and is shown to predict fairly accurate the PM2.5 and PM10 concentration as compared to observation. The predicted PM2.5 concentration over New South Wales during 5 days from 11 to 15 February 2019 is then used to estimate the impact of the February 2019 dust storm event on three health endpoints, namely mortality, respiratory and cardiac disease hospitalisation rates. The results show that even though as the daily average of PM2.5 over some parts of the state, especially in western and north western NSW near the centre of the dust storm and wild fires, are very high (over 900 µg/m3), the population exposure is low due to the sparse population. Generally, the health impact is similar in order of magnitude to that caused by biomass burning events from wildfires or from hazardous reduction burnings (HRBs) near populous centres such as in Sydney in May 2016. One notable difference is the higher respiratory disease hospitalisation for this dust event (161) compared to the fire event (24).

Air Quality in Association With Rural Coal Mining and Combustion in New South Wales Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hendryx ◽  
Nicholas Higginbotham ◽  
Benjamin Ewald ◽  
Linda H. Connor
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales

scholarly journals Source Contributions to Ozone Formation in the New South Wales Greater Metropolitan Region, Australia

Atmosphere ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiep Nguyen Duc ◽  
Lisa Chang ◽  
Toan Trieu ◽  
David Salter ◽  
Yvonne Scorgie
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
North West ◽  
Ozone Concentrations ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Source Contributions ◽  
Ozone Levels ◽  
Different Parts

Ozone and fine particles (PM2.5) are the two main air pollutants of concern in the New South Wales Greater Metropolitan Region (NSW GMR) due to their contribution to poor air quality days in the region. This paper focuses on source contributions to ambient ozone concentrations for different parts of the NSW GMR, based on source emissions across the greater Sydney region. The observation-based Integrated Empirical Rate model (IER) was applied to delineate the different regions within the GMR based on the photochemical smog profile of each region. Ozone source contribution was then modelled using the CCAM-CTM (Cubic Conformal Atmospheric model-Chemical Transport model) modelling system and the latest air emission inventory for the greater Sydney region. Source contributions to ozone varied between regions, and also varied depending on the air quality metric applied (e.g., average or maximum ozone). Biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions were found to contribute significantly to median and maximum ozone concentration in North West Sydney during summer. After commercial and domestic sources, power generation was found to be the next largest anthropogenic source of maximum ozone concentrations in North West Sydney. However, in South West Sydney, beside commercial and domestic sources, on-road vehicles were predicted to be the most significant contributor to maximum ozone levels, followed by biogenic sources and power stations. The results provide information that policy makers can use to devise various options to control ozone levels in different parts of the NSW Greater Metropolitan Region.

Long term PM2.5 trends in the Australian industrial city of Newcastle: a 15-year study from 1998 to 2013

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduard Stelcer ◽  
David D. Cohen ◽  
Armand J. Atanacio
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Fine Particle ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Sampling Site ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Large Dataset ◽  
Average Mass ◽  
Industrial Operations ◽  
Aerosol Sources

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 2.5µm (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 8.11µgm–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.

scholarly journals Source Contributions to Ozone Formation in the New South Wales Greater Metropolitan Region, Australia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiep Nguyen Duc ◽  
Lisa T.-C. Chang ◽  
Toan Trieu ◽  
David Salter ◽  
Yvonne Scorgie
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
North West ◽  
Ozone Concentrations ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Source Contributions ◽  
Ozone Levels ◽  
Different Parts

Ozone and fine particles (PM2.5) are the two main air pollutants of concern in the New South Wales Greater Metropolitan Region (NSW GMR) region due to their contribution to poor air quality days in the region. This paper focuses on source contributions to ambient ozone concentrations for different parts of the NSW GMR, based on source emissions across the greater Sydney region. The observation-based Integrated Empirical Rate Model (IER) was applied to delineate the different regions within the GMR based on the photochemical smog profile of each region. Ozone source contribution is then modelled using the CCAM-CTM (Cubic Conformal Atmospheric Model-Chemical Transport Model) modelling system and the latest air emission inventory for the greater Sydney region. Source contributions to ozone varied between regions, and also varied depending on the air quality metric applied (e.g., average or maximum ozone). Biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions were found to contribute significantly to median and maximum ozone concentration in North West Sydney during summer. After commercial domestic, power station was found to be the next largest anthropogenic source of maximum ozone concentrations in North West Sydney. However, in South West Sydney, beside commercial and domestic sources, on-road vehicles were predicted to be the most significant contributor to maximum ozone levels, followed by biogenic sources and power stations. The results provide information which policy makers can devise various options to control ozone levels in different parts of the NSW Greater Metropolitan Region.

scholarly journals Diversity in Ruby Geochemistry and Its Inclusions: Intra- and Inter- Continental Comparisons from Myanmar and Eastern Australia

Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Sutherland ◽  
Khin Zaw ◽  
Sebastien Meffre ◽  
Jay Thompson ◽  
Karsten Goemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Elements ◽  
New England ◽  
Trace Element ◽  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Pb Isotopes ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Fold Belts

Ruby in diverse geological settings leaves petrogenetic clues, in its zoning, inclusions, trace elements and oxygen isotope values. Rock-hosted and isolated crystals are compared from Myanmar, SE Asia, and New South Wales, East Australia. Myanmar ruby typifies metasomatized and metamorphic settings, while East Australian ruby xenocrysts are derived from basalts that tapped underlying fold belts. The respective suites include homogeneous ruby; bi-colored inner (violet blue) and outer (red) zoned ruby; ruby-sapphirine-spinel composites; pink to red grains and multi-zoned crystals of red-pink-white-violet (core to rim). Ruby ages were determined by using U-Pb isotopes in titanite inclusions (Thurein Taung; 32.4 Ma) and zircon inclusions (Mong Hsu; 23.9 Ma) and basalt dating in NSW, >60–40 Ma. Trace element oxide plots suggest marble sources for Thurein Taung and Mong Hsu ruby and ultramafic-mafic sources for Mong Hsu (dark cores). NSW rubies suggest metasomatic (Barrington Tops), ultramafic to mafic (Macquarie River) and metasomatic-magmatic (New England) sources. A previous study showed that Cr/Ga vs. Fe/(V + Ti) plots separate Mong Hsu ruby from other ruby fields, but did not test Mogok ruby. Thurein Taung ruby, tested here, plotted separately to Mong Hsu ruby. A Fe-Ga/Mg diagram splits ruby suites into various fields (Ga/Mg < 3), except for magmatic input into rare Mogok and Australian ruby (Ga/Mg > 6). The diverse results emphasize ruby’s potential for geographic typing.

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