You are here:
An Application of Passive Samplers to Understand Atmospheric Mercury Concentration and Dry Deposition Spatial Distributions
Citation:
Huang, J., H. Choi, M. S. LANDIS, AND T. M. HOLSEN. An Application of Passive Samplers to Understand Atmospheric Mercury Concentration and Dry Deposition Spatial Distributions. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, Uk, 14(11):2976-2982, (2012).
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:
Two modified passive samplers were evaluated at multiple field locations. The sampling rate (SR) of the modified polyurethane foam (PUF)-disk passive sampler for total gaseous mercury (TGM) using gold-coated quartz fiber filters (GcQFF) and gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) using ion-exchange membranes (IEM) were 6.4 ± 1.4 and 15.3 ± 0.3 m3 day−1, respectively. The relative percent difference between TGM and GOM concentrations measured by a Tekran system and the passive samplers averaged 19 ± 14 and 13 ± 12% and ranged between 4–44 and 1.5–41%, respectively. The GcQFF and IEM substrates were also evaluated as collection media for surrogate surface dry deposition measurements. Mercury (Hg) concentration and dry deposition gradients were observed using these samplers at an urban/industrial site and compared to a rural/remote site. The Hg dry deposition rates measured by the surrogate surfaces were always higher than those calculated by a widely used inferential modeling method (1.3–50 fold). The Hg dry deposition measured at urban and suburban sites were comparable to those calculated from model. However, they were very different at a rural site, probably due to the low concentrations. Both methods are relatively low cost and will aid in understanding spatial distributions of Hg ambient air concentrations and dry deposition.
URLs/Downloads:
An Application of Passive Samplers to Understand Atmospheric Mercury Concentration and Dry Deposition Spatial Distributions (PDF, NA pp, 360 KB, about PDF)Journal of Environmental Monitoring
