AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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Elucidating Sources and Human Health Risk of Inhalation Exposure to VOCs and PM2.5 at Albany, New York
MD. AYNUL BARI, Sanchita Paul, University at Albany, SUNY
Abstract Number: 521 Working Group: Source Apportionment
Abstract Exposure to ambient VOCs and PM2.5 in urban areas is of interest because of their potential adverse effects to public health. A study was carried out to better elucidate ambient sources of VOCs and PM2.5 in Albany, the Capital of New York State for the period 2015–2018. Twenty-four hour average concentrations of measured total VOCs and PM2.5 were low – 5.4 µg/m3 (range: 1.8–12.4 µg/m3) and 6.4 µg/m3 (0.5–22.6 µg/m3), respectively. A combined dataset of VOCs and PM2.5 species was used in positive matrix factorization (PMF) model to better interpret the complex nature of different sources. Ten sources were revealed where secondary organic aerosol (SOA) (1.8 µg/m3, 33%) and diesel vehicles/global background (1.0 µg/m3, 19%) were the largest contributors to VOCs. Predominant contributors to PM2.5 were SOA (1.1 µg/m3, 18%) and spark-ignition (gasoline) (1.1 µg/m3, 18%) followed by secondary sulfate (0.9 µg/m3, 14%), secondary nitrate (0.7 µg/m3, 11%) and diesel vehicles (0.6 µg/m3, 10%). Other sources included combustion-related, vehicle exhaust, road-salt, soil dust, and methyl ethyl ketone-rich. Source-specific carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risk values were also calculated. Estimated carcinogenic risks for all sources were below the U.S.EPA acceptable level except for SOA and diesel vehicles/global background, where they posed greater risk to public health (48% and 14% of carcinogenic risk, respectively) compared to other sources. Due to lack of some VOC species data (e.g., alkanes, alkenes), other urban sources e.g., petroleum-related and fuel evaporation were not identified. More work is needed to understand the origin of potential SOA and wintertime biomass combustion sources in Albany county and surrounding region. Findings of this study can support policy makers in developing appropriate air quality management initiatives if needed.