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A Review of Advancements in Particulate Matter Sampling and Analysis and its Application to Identifying Source Impacts at Receptor Locations
Citation:
SOLOMON, P. A. AND N. FRANK. A Review of Advancements in Particulate Matter Sampling and Analysis and its Application to Identifying Source Impacts at Receptor Locations. Air Quality and Climate Change. Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand, Olinda, Australia, 43(4):35-42, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
Time-integrated (typically 24-hr) filter-based methods (historical methods) form the underpinning of our understanding of the fate, impact of source emissions at receptor locations (source impacts), and potential health and welfare effects of particulate matter (PM) in air. Over the last 40 years, many of these methods have been thoroughly evaluated and there is reasonable confidence with what they measure and associated uncertainties. These methods require transport of samples collected in the field to a laboratory for analysis of PM properties of interest. Over the last decade, significant progress has occurred in the development and evaluation of continuous and semi-continuous methods that combine the collection and chemical or physical property analysis into one instrument. These methods are placed in the field, providing often near-real time data, most with hourly time-resolution or better from bulk to single practical information from a few nanometers to 10 μm. Many of the continuous chemical property methods developed and tested still require additional evaluation and comparison between themselves and to historical methods. The latter are the primary basis for comparison since in-the-field tests, through the inlet reference standards are not available for most PM components. Despite lesser confidence in these methods relative to historical methods, data generated from these methods have greatly enhanced the application of approaches to link and quantify the impact of source emissions at receptor sites and to associate PM with health effects, as well as significantly advancing our understanding of atmospheric chemistry and the fate of PM in air. This paper briefly reviews the two primary modeling methods for estimating source contributions at receptor locations and current measurement methods with a focus on continuous measurements.
URLs/Downloads:
A Review of Advancements in Particulate Matter Sampling and Analysis and its Application to Identifying Source Impacts at Receptor Locations (PDF, NA pp, 5811 KB, about PDF)Air Quality and Climate Change
