TY - JOUR
T1 - Hygroscopic and chemical properties of aerosol emissions at a major mining facility in Iran
T2 - Implications for respiratory deposition
AU - Cuevas-Robles, Alberto
AU - Soltani, Naghmeh
AU - Keshavarzi, Behnam
AU - Youn, Jong sang
AU - MacDonald, Alexander B.
AU - Sorooshian, Armin
N1 - Funding Information:
Sample collection was financially supported by Gol-E-Gohar mining and industrial company. The authors wish to thank Shiraz University Research Committee and the Medical Geology Research Center of Shiraz University for supporting this research. AS acknowledges both the Center for Environmentally Sustainable Mining through the TRIF Water Sustainability Program at the University of Arizona and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institute of Health under Award Number P42 ES004940 . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research and Control
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - This study characterizes the hygroscopic and chemical nature of aerosols originating from ten locations (4 outdoors and 6 indoors) around the Gol-E-Gohar (GEG) iron ore mine (Iran), including an assessment of how hygroscopic growth alters particulate deposition in the respiratory system. Aerosols collected on filters in three diameter (Dp) ranges (total suspended particulates [TSP], Dp ≤ 10 μm [PM10], and Dp ≤ 2.5 μm [PM2.5]) were analyzed for chemical and hygroscopic characteristics. The water-soluble aerosol composition is dominated by species associated with directly emitted crustal matter such as chloride, sodium, calcium, and sulfate. There was minimal contribution from organic acids and other secondarily formed species such as inorganic salts. Aerosol growth factors at 90% relative humidity varied between 1.39 and 1.72 and exceed values reported for copper mines in the United States where similar data are available. Values of the hygroscopicity parameter kappa (0.19–0.45) were best related to the mass fraction of chloride among all the studied species. Kappa values were generally similar when comparing the three types of samples (TSP, PM2.5, PM10) at each site and also when comparing each of the ten sampling sites. Accounting for hygroscopic growth yields an increase in the deposition fraction for aerosols with a dry Dp between 0.2 and 2 μm based on International Commission on Radiological Protection model calculations, with more variability when examining each of the three individual head airway regions.
AB - This study characterizes the hygroscopic and chemical nature of aerosols originating from ten locations (4 outdoors and 6 indoors) around the Gol-E-Gohar (GEG) iron ore mine (Iran), including an assessment of how hygroscopic growth alters particulate deposition in the respiratory system. Aerosols collected on filters in three diameter (Dp) ranges (total suspended particulates [TSP], Dp ≤ 10 μm [PM10], and Dp ≤ 2.5 μm [PM2.5]) were analyzed for chemical and hygroscopic characteristics. The water-soluble aerosol composition is dominated by species associated with directly emitted crustal matter such as chloride, sodium, calcium, and sulfate. There was minimal contribution from organic acids and other secondarily formed species such as inorganic salts. Aerosol growth factors at 90% relative humidity varied between 1.39 and 1.72 and exceed values reported for copper mines in the United States where similar data are available. Values of the hygroscopicity parameter kappa (0.19–0.45) were best related to the mass fraction of chloride among all the studied species. Kappa values were generally similar when comparing the three types of samples (TSP, PM2.5, PM10) at each site and also when comparing each of the ten sampling sites. Accounting for hygroscopic growth yields an increase in the deposition fraction for aerosols with a dry Dp between 0.2 and 2 μm based on International Commission on Radiological Protection model calculations, with more variability when examining each of the three individual head airway regions.
KW - Aerosol
KW - Hygroscopicity
KW - Kappa
KW - Mining
KW - Respiratory deposition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099314924&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85099314924&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.apr.2020.12.015
DO - 10.1016/j.apr.2020.12.015
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099314924
VL - 12
SP - 292
EP - 301
JO - Atmospheric Pollution Research
JF - Atmospheric Pollution Research
SN - 1309-1042
IS - 3
ER -