scholarly journals Holzfeuerungen: eine bedeutende Quelle von Feinstaub in der Schweiz

2013 ◽  
Vol 164 (12) ◽  
pp. 420-427
Author(s):  
Urs Baltensperger ◽  
Emily Bruns ◽  
Josef Dommen ◽  
Imad El Haddad ◽  
Maarten F. Heringa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Airborne Particulate Matter ◽  
Wood Combustion ◽  
Gas Cleaning ◽  
Adverse Health Effects ◽  
Exhaust Gas Cleaning ◽  
Secondary Aerosols ◽  
Small Wood ◽  
Wood Stoves

Wood combustion: a substantial source of airborne particulate matter in Switzerland Wood is a renewable energy source. Wood combustion for heating purposes therefore helps in reducing CO2 emissions. However, it often results in high emissions of particulate matter (PM) which includes both black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC). PM has adverse health effects and should therefore be minimized. This paper reports on the latest methods to quantify the contribution of wood combustion to PM load and gives values for PM, BC, and OC from wood combustion at a number of different sites in Switzerland. State of the art methods to characterize emissions are presented and examples are given. It is shown that a major fraction of the emissions stems from small wood stoves, where the emissions are especially high during the starting phase. In addition, these small furnaces emit large amounts of gases which are rapidly oxidized and form secondary aerosols in the atmosphere. Improvements in the emissions of small wood stoves can be achieved by an increased deployment of pellet ovens, by the development and application of new technology for exhaust gas cleaning, as well as through other ways of wood usage.

scholarly journals Particulate matter collection by honey bees (Apis mellifera, L.) near to a cement factory in Italy

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Pellecchia ◽  
Ilaria Negri
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Airborne Particulate Matter ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Cement Factory ◽  
Adverse Health Effects ◽  
Cement Manufacturing

Industrial activities play a key role in the economic well-being of a country but they usually involve processes with a more or less profound environmental impact, including emission of pollutants. Among them, much attention has been given to airborne particulate matter (PM) whose exposure is ubiquitous and linked with several adverse health effects mainly due to its size and chemical composition. Therefore, there is a strong need to exploit monitoring systems for airborne PM able to provide accurate information on the potential health hazards and the specific emission sources for the implementation of adequate control strategies. The honey bee (Apis mellifera, L.) is widely used as an indicator of environmental pollution: this social hymenopteran strongly interacts with vegetables, air, soil, and water surrounding the hive and, as a consequence, pollutants from these sources are translated to the insect and to the hive products. During the wide-ranging foraging activity, the forager bee is known to collect samples of the main airborne PM pollutants emitted from different sources and therefore it can be used as an efficient PM sampler. In the present research, PM contaminating forager bees living nearby a cement factory and several kilometers away from it has been analysed and characterised morphologically, dimensionally and chemically through SEM/EDX. This provided detailed information on the role of both the cement manufacturing activities and the vehicular traffic as sources of airborne PM. This may indeed help the implementation of appropriate preventive and corrective actions that would effectively minimize the environmental spread of pollutant PM not only in areas close to the plant, but also in more distant areas.

scholarly journals Cardiopulmonary Health Effects of Airborne Particulate Matter: Correlating Animal Toxicology to Human Epidemiology

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 954-961 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent E. Pinkerton ◽  
Chao-Yin Chen ◽  
Savannah M. Mack ◽  
Priya Upadhyay ◽  
Ching-Wen Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Airborne Particulate Matter ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Airborne Particulate ◽  
Adverse Health Effects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Toxicological Studies

The effects of particulate matter (PM) on cardiopulmonary health have been studied extensively over the past three decades. Particulate matter is the primary criteria air pollutant most commonly associated with adverse health effects on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The mechanisms by which PM exerts its effects are thought to be due to a variety of factors which may include, but are not limited to, concentration, duration of exposure, and age of exposed persons. Adverse effects of PM are strongly driven by their physicochemical properties, sites of deposition, and interactions with cells of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. The direct translocation of particles, as well as neural and local inflammatory events, are primary drivers for the observed cardiopulmonary health effects. In this review, toxicological studies in animals, and clinical and epidemiological studies in humans are examined to demonstrate the importance of using all three approaches to better define potential mechanisms driving health outcomes upon exposure to airborne PM of diverse physicochemical compositions.

scholarly journals Geochemical and Mineralogical Characteristics of Airborne Particulate Matter in Relation to Human Health Risk

Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzena Rachwał ◽  
Małgorzata Wawer ◽  
Mariola Jabłońska ◽  
Wioletta Rogula-Kozłowska ◽  
Patrycja Rogula-Kopiec
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Susceptibility ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Magnetic Particles ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Human Health Risk ◽  
Airborne Particulate Matter ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Average Concentration ◽  
Health Indices

The main objective of this research was the determination of the geochemical and mineralogical properties of particulate matter: TSP (total suspended particles) and, especially PM1 (particles with aerodynamic diameter not greater than 1 µm) suspended in the air of a selected urban area in southern Poland. Identification of the emission sources of metals and metalloids bound in TSP and PM1 as well as the assessment of potential risk of urban ambient air to human health using hazard indices was an additional aim of this investigation. The daily TSP and PM1 quartz fiber filters collected during heating season were subjected to mass magnetic susceptibility (χ) measurements, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) observations and geochemical analyses. Obtained results revealed that the concentration of TSP and PM1 well correlated with their mass-specific magnetic susceptibility. The good relationship between the PM concentration and χ suggests that magnetic susceptibility measurements can be a good proxy of low-level atmospheric dust pollution. The rank order of potentially toxic elements (PTE) based on average concentration was Ba > Zn > Al > Fe > Pb > Mn > Ti > Cu > Cr > Ni >As > Cd > V > Tl, both for TSP and PM1. PM1/TSP ratios for PTE concentrations and χ were around or slightly above unity, which indicated that PM1 was the main carrier of PTE (with the exception of cadmium, copper and lead) and technogenic magnetic particles. The non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were confirmed by very high values of human health indices.

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