High Time-Resolution Measurements of Particulate Metals in Environmental Justice Communities

HANYANG LI, Miguel Zavala-Perez, Wayne Linklater, Anthony S. Wexler, San Diego State University

     Abstract Number: 110
     Working Group: Urban Aerosols

Abstract
Among the various air pollutants that can affect environmental justice communities, toxic metals are a big concern due to their potential health effects and the associated odor complaints. Although anthropogenic metal emissions have been identified for a long time, studies of human exposure to heavy metals have been hindered by the lack of a real-time metal monitor. To fill this gap, we have applied the technology of spark-induced breakdown spectroscopy to develop a Toxic-metal Aerosol Real-Time Analysis (TARTA) that offers a low-cost and real-time alternative to existing ambient toxic metal analyzers in the market.

In this presentation, we are going to report our first results from the application of TARTA in community air quality monitoring. The monitored community sites are within California’s Imperial Valley, Sacramento, and San Ysidro. Low-income people, people of color, tribal people, immigrants, and other disadvantaged populations in California face a large number of severe environmental and health risks. The air quality in these communities is significantly degraded by emissions from transportation, industrial facilities, energy production, and industrialized agriculture. In addition, the Imperial Valley and San Ysidro’s locations along the US-Mexico border and several high-volume border crossing corridors also put their residents at high risk for air quality impacts. Our measurements will reveal the spatial and temporal variations of individual metals in different communities and assess community-specific emission sources of the observed elements using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA).