Knowledge of air pollution sources is important in policymaking and air pollution mitigation. Until recently, source apportion analyses were limited and only possible with the use of expensive regulatory-grade instruments. In the present study authors applied a two-step positive matrix factorisation (PMF) receptor analysis at a background site in Birmingham, UK using data acquired by low-cost sens...

This study analyzed the variability of equivalent black carbon (eBC) mass concentrations and their sources in urban Europe to provide insights into the use of eBC as an advanced air quality (AQ) parameter for AQ standards. This study compiled eBC mass concentration datasets covering the period between 2006 and 2022 from 50 measurement stations, including 23 urban background (UB), 18 traffic (TR), ...

Hourly particulate matter 2.5 organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) ambient concentrations were measured from February 2012 to January 2013 at a suburban site in the city of Guangzhou, China. The major primary OC and EC sources at this site are vehicular exhaust and regional combustion sources. The annual average OC and EC concentrations (±1SD) were 7.30 ± 5.68 and 2.67 ± 2.28 μgC/m3, resp...

PM10 source apportionment was performed by positive matrix factorization (PMF) using specific primary and secondary organic molecular markers on samples collected over a one year period (2013) at an urban station in Grenoble (France). The results provided a 9-factor optimum solution, including sources rarely apportioned in the literature, such as two types of primary biogenic organic aerosols (fun...

Increasing emissions from sources such as construction and burning of biomass from crop residues, roadside and municipal solid waste have led to a rapid increase in the atmospheric concentrations of fine particulate matter (≤2.5 μm; PM2.5) over many Indian cities. Analyses of their chemical profiles are important for receptor models to accurately estimate the contributions from different sources. ...

Emerging contaminants (ECs) encompass a diverse range of synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs), and biological agents. These contaminants have been increasingly detected in various environmental matrices due to incre...

Microplastics have been considered a new type of pollutant in the marine environment and have attracted widespread attention worldwide in recent years. Plastic particles with particle size less than 5 mm are usually defined as microplastics. Because of their similar size to plankton, marine organisms easily ingest microplastics and can threaten higher organisms and even human health through the fo...

Mobile monitoring has proven to be a very efficient tool to measure and feed into models of air pollution as it complements fixed air quality monitoring networks by adding spatiotemporal resolution. This paper explores best practices, opportunities and challenges related to mobile monitoring of air pollutants, focusing on three key application areas, namely source-, exposure-, and health-related u...

Purpose of this Report:The purpose of this report from the Air Quality Expert Group is to summarise what is currently known about the impact of the ultrafine particle (UFP) component on UK ambient air quality. This is considered particularly in respect of differences between UFP and the PM2.5 and PM10 quantities that are also used to characterise airborne particulate matter, and which have been th...

The oxidative potential (OP) of particulate matter (PM) is a pivotal metric to evaluate the potential health effects of air pollution. However, the variety of assays and protocols available to measure the OP poses a challenge for comparing one study with another. The present study aims to provide an analysis comparing four calculation methods for determining the OP. These methods include the use o...