Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (10): 1257-1266.doi: 10.19741/j.issn.1673-4831.2022.0335

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Chemical Speciation, Source Appointment and Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in PM2.5 in Winter in the North Suburb of Nanjing

ZHAO Teng, SUN Ming-yang, GE Xin-lei   

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology (CICAEET)/Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environmental Monitoring & Pollution Control, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
  • Received:2022-04-19 Online:2023-10-25 Published:2023-10-23

Abstract: To explore the pollution characteristics, sources, and source-specific health risks of PM2.5-bound heavy metals (HMs) during winter in the north suburb of Nanjing, daily PM2.5 filter samples were collected during January and February 2021. The distribution characteristics and chemical speciation of 11 HMs (Al, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, As, Sr, Cd, Ba and Pb) in PM2.5 were determined by BCR extraction and ICP-OES. Positive matrix factorization (PMF), as well as the modified health risk assessment method was used to analyze the source-specific health risks of HMs, which could find out the major health abuser. The influence of the regional transmission was evaluated using PMF, the concentration-weighted trajectory (CWT) method and Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectories (HYSPLIT), respectively. The results showed that the average daily concentration of PM2.5 was (99.0±18.3) μg·m-3, and 92.3% of the days in the sampling period exceeded the daily average limit of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (GB 3095-2012). The total contents of HMs was (1 999.0±307.2) ng·m-3, while the average value of As and Cd were (7.0±3.5) and (22.0±14.0) ng·m-3 ,respectively,both higher than the GB 3095-2012 limit value. Most of the studied HMs (V, Cr, Mn, As, Sr, Cd, Ba) were mainly concentrated in acid-soluble fraction (F1) with high bioavailability, a relatively high percentage of Co, Cu and Pb were present in reducible fraction (F2). Al was mostly concentrated in residual fraction (F4) with low bioavailability. Dust sources (31.4%), coal sources (17.7%) and the mixed sources of traffic and industry (50.9%) were the main sources of metal elements. Non-cancer risks of heavy metals were negligible with values under 1, and Cr, Co, As, Cd posed potential cancer risk to child and adults with values between 10-6 and 10-4. It could not be ignored that the impact of the mixed sources of industrial and traffic and regional transmission from Xinyang city of Henan Province and eastern Anhui Province on health risks in the northern suburbs of Nanjing. Therefore, it is not only necessary to strengthen the control of local industrial emissions, but also to pay close attention to the impact of regional transmission.

Key words: PM2.5, heavy metals, bioaccessibility, source apportionment, source-specific health risk

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