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Impact of Wildfire Smoke and Biomass Burning on PAHs and Quinones
ELIZABETH NOTH, Frederick Lurmann, Charles Perrino, David Vaughn, S. Katharine Hammond, Environmental Health Sciences, SPH, UC Berkeley
Abstract Number: 679
Working Group: Wildfire Aerosols
Abstract
As part of our ongoing research to understand the impact of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon(PAH) exposures on health in the San Joaquin Valley, we evaluated 20 years of airborne PAH data(2002-2021) in Fresno, California. We collected and analyzed 752 integrated 24-hour PM10 samples for PAHs collected on two 37mm pre-baked quartz fiber filters impregnated with ground XAD-4 resin. This method captures both vapor- and particle-phase compounds. These samples were analyzed for 17 PAHs and 19 quinones. We evaluated the impact of agricultural waste burning(AWB) and wildfire smoke(WFS) on these compounds and their relevant diagnostic ratios. We quantified agricultural burning in Fresno and Madera Counties from agricultural burn permit data with location and materials burned available from the local air district. To assign days of wildfire smoke impacts to Fresno, we used the NOAA Satellite Smoke Mapping product. The dataset had 67 days with both AWB and WFS, 24 days with just WFS, 502 days of AWB, and 159 days where neither type of impact was reported. We saw significant elevations in concentrations in many individual PAHs and quinones on days of WFS and AWB. The most dramatic differences were observed in 3- and 4-ring PAHs collected in July-October: compared to days with neither source, acenaphthylene was 13 times higher on WFS days, fluorene was 5 times higher and phenanthrene was 3 times higher. Retene concentrations during July-October that had AWB (and no WFS) were 37 times higher than days without. Samples during this same time period with both WFS and AWB showed the ratio of pyrene/benzo[a]pyrene was 12 times lower than days with neither source. Both pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene increased on WFS+AWB days, but benzo[a]pyrene increased more, relatively. PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations for these days do not exhibit similar dramatic differences in response to the change in source.