10th International Aerosol Conference
September 2 - September 7, 2018
America's Center Convention Complex
St. Louis, Missouri, USA

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Comprehensive Analysis of PM2.5 in Toronto: Composition, Sources, and Health Effects

CHEOL H. JEONG, Alison Traub, Angela Huang, Jon M. Wang, Nathan Hilker, Anthony Munoz, Ewa Dabek-Zlotorzynska, Dennis Herod, Scott Weichenthal, Greg J. Evans, SOCAAR, University of Toronto

     Abstract Number: 868
     Working Group: Source Apportionment

Abstract
In order to provide a historical perspective of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), source apportionment was conducted on 13-year comprehensive aerosol chemical speciation data collected from 2004 to 2016 in downtown Toronto, Canada using a Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). The PM2.5 samples were collected every three days using two 24-hr integrated filter samplers operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada to measure PM2.5 mass, inorganic ions, thermal/optical organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC), and trace elements. In addition to the integrated samples, hourly-based continuous particulate measurements for inorganic and organic aerosol, trace metals, OC, EC, and optical black carbon were conducted at the downtown site since 2011. The objective of this study was to compare the 24-hr integrated filter data to the hourly-resolved chemical speciation data, to identify the long-term trend of PM2.5 sources in the urban area, and to evaluate the PMF analysis using these PM2.5 speciation data. Furthermore, the oxidative potential (OP) of PM2.5 samples was also determined to investigate the influence of PM2.5 trace elements on the capacity of PM2.5 to generate reactive oxygen species. To assess the temporal and spatial variability of the OP of PM2.5, we examined the oxidative potential of PM2.5 samples collected over a year-long period at three sites, downtown, urban background, and highway. The PMF-resolved sources were compared to the OP to identify PM2.5 sources affecting the temporal and spatial distribution of aerosol oxidative potential. The results will provide insight into the associations between source impacts and OP for both air quality policy decisions and heath studies.