AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
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Chemical Characterization of 2016 Alberta Wildfire Smoke and Its Long-term Health Impact
Meng Meng, Shunyao Wang, Lukas Kohl, ARTHUR W. H. CHAN, University of Toronto
Abstract Number: 314 Working Group: Aerosol Chemistry
Abstract The wildfires near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada was the costliest disaster in Canadian history, burning over 2000 homes in Fort McMurray and over 1.5 million acres of forest land. Since wildfire smoke has been shown to induce pulmonary oxidative stress and contain gene mutagens, there are significant concerns over the long term health impacts of exposure to wildfire smoke and residual ash. In this work, we characterize the chemical composition (including organic compounds and metals) of the smoke generated from Alberta wildfire. Both fire smoke particulate matter and ash samples were collected in the area. Synchronized Hybrid Ambient Real-time Particulate (SHARP) monitors that remained in operation provide filter samples of PM2.5 directly emitted from the fires. Ash samples were also collected after the wildfire in urban and rural areas. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with in-situ derivatization was used to characterize the organic composition, and the metal content was analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). Preliminary results show that many semi-volatile organic compounds such as alkanes, alkanoic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives were found to be significantly elevated in the samples during the fire. Measurements of oxidative potential (OP) by the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay show that OPs were also elevated in locations not directly affected by fire, suggesting the role of atmospheric transport of fire smoke. Ash collected in urban areas show a different profile in metal concentrations from ash collected in rural areas, which may indicate different long-term health impacts. The spatial profile of organic and metallic chemical compositions of PM2.5 and fire ash samples will be discussed.