Concentration Of Trace Elements in Airborne PM10 from Jobos Bay National Estuary, Puerto Rico

Abstract

Atmospheric suspended particulate matter (PM 10 ) was sampled from the Jobos Bay estuary in Salinas and from a reference site (Fajardo) in the east coast of Puerto Rico. Salinas is a town in the south coast of Puerto Rico adjacent to a number of industries and to the only coal power plant on the island. It is important to study the air quality in this area since significant releases of metal to the environment due to energy production could represent a threat to local communities. This study evaluated the levels of PM 10 , metals, and arsenic to set a reference point for future environmental studies in the area. Sampling was performed for periods of 72 h between August 2002 and May 2003 using a Partisol Plus Model 2025 sequential PM 10 air monitor. Seven metals were analyzed per sample (Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Hg, Pb and V) plus arsenic using Atomic Absorption. Average annuals levels for PM 10 in Salinas were 22.9 μg/m 3 versus 20.7 μg/m 3 in Fajardo. All metals analyzed were significantly higher in Salinas when compared to Fajardo (reference site). Statistical analyses showed strong relationships between the metal groups (Cu and Cd) and (As and Pb) at Salinas. Good relationship was also observed for Fe and PM 10 . This analysis suggests two main sources for the elements: anthropogenic and metal flux from Saharan dust arriving to the island.

African Dust Storms Reaching Puerto Rican Coast Stimulate the Secretion of IL-6 and IL-8 and Cause Cytotoxicity to Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells (BEAS-2B)

“…These studies have demonstrated that PM 10 fractions collected from Puerto Rican urban areas (e.g., Guaynabo, Salinas) contained higher concentrations of ENX and TMET, respectively (e.g., Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Hg, Pb and V) than extracts collected from rural coastal regions (e.g., Fajardo) and were significantly toxic to in vitro systems [12,22,62]. Subsequent work also demonstrated that PM 2.5 fractions collected from indoor areas contained higher concentrations of these metals than PM samples obtained from outdoor areas, causing significant release of pro-inflammatory cytokines in vitro [64-68]. These results suggest that PM 2.5 and PM 10 fractions and some of their constituents (e.g., ENX and TMET) present at different Puerto Rican locations (urban and rural areas) may play a key role in the exacerbation of certain respiratory diseases (e.g.…”

Evaluation of cytokine expression in BEAS cells exposed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from specialized indoor environments

“…For acid extraction, filters were digested by adding nitric acid and ultra pure water. It was conducted on a hot plate, heated and refluxed at 908C + 58C for 2 h (Gioda et al 2006). …”

“…US EPA methods 202.2, 7060A, 7131A, 7381, 7421, 7521 and 7911 were used for the particular analyses of Al, As, Cd, Fe, Pb, Ni and V, respectively (US EPA 1986–1996). Detailed metal analyses were described elsewhere (Gioda et al 2006). …”

Analytical approaches for arsenic determination in air: A critical review

“…Also, for PTFE filters, an extraction procedure has been proposed at room temperature with a mixture of HF:HNO 3 [61,83], although the extraction time is long (4 days), in comparison to the few hours employed with methodologies that heat the sample (e.g. extraction with HNO 3 on a heating plate for 2 h, as described by Gioda et al [85]. A faster extraction procedure for quartz fibre filters has been employed by Yadav and Turner [86] which consists of the extraction with a mixture of HNO 3 :HCl in a heating block at 90 ºC for 90 min.…”

“…The authors indicated that the trueness of their study provided values in the range of 99.6 to108.2 % for all the metals, compared to the certified values. Gioda et al [85] has employed NIST SRM 2583 Indoor Dust, with a 76% recovery of the As certified value.…”