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PM2.5 levels, chemical composition and health risk assessment in **nxiang, a seriously air-polluted city in North China

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Abstract

Seventeen PM2.5 samples were collected at **nxiang during winter in 2014. Nine water-soluble ions, 19 trace elements and eight fractions of carbonaceous species in PM2.5 were analyzed. PM2.5 concentrations and elements species during different periods with different pollution situations were compared. The threat of heavy metals in PM2.5 was assessed using incremental lifetime cancer risk. During the whole period, serious regional haze pollution persisted, and the averaged concentration of PM2.5 was 168.5 μg m−3, with 88.2 % of the daily samples exhibiting higher PM2.5 concentrations than the national air quality standard II. The high NO3 −/SO4 2− ratio suggested that vehicular exhaust made an important contribution to atmospheric pollution. All of organic carbon and elemental carbon ratios in this study were above 2.0 for PM2.5, which might reflect the combined contributions from coal combustion, motor vehicle exhaust and biomass burning. Mean 96-h backward trajectory clusters indicated that more serious air pollution occurred when air masses transported from the Hebei, Shanxi and Zhengzhou. The concentrations of the water-soluble ions and trace elements on haze days were 2 and 1.8 times of those on clear days. The heavy metals in PM2.5 might not cause non-cancerous health issues by exposure through the human respiratory system. However, lifetime cancer risks of heavy metals obviously exceeded the threshold (10−6) and might have a cancer risk for residents in **nxiang. This study provided detailed composition data and comprehensive analysis of PM2.5 during the serious haze pollution period and their potential impact on human health in **nxiang.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Scientific Foundation of China (Grant No. 41103071), Program for Science and Technology Innovation talents in universities of Henan Province (14HASTIT049) and Foundation for University Key Teacher by Henan Province (2013GGJS-059), Key Project of Science and Technology in Henan Province (152102310316) and Program for Science and Technology Development in **nxiang (15SF02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Henan Normal University, Key Laboratory for Yellow River and Huai River Water Environment and Pollution Control, Ministry of Education, Henan Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Control, **nxiang, 453007, Henan, People’s Republic of China

    **glan Feng, Hao Yu, Shuhui Liu, **anfa Su & Jianhui Sun

  2. Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, 1110 W. Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ, 85007, USA

    Yi Li

  3. State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100029, People’s Republic of China

    Yuepeng Pan

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  1. **glan Feng
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  2. Hao Yu
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  3. Shuhui Liu
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  4. **anfa Su
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  5. Yi Li
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Correspondence to **glan Feng or Jianhui Sun.

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Feng, J., Yu, H., Liu, S. et al. PM2.5 levels, chemical composition and health risk assessment in **nxiang, a seriously air-polluted city in North China. Environ Geochem Health 39, 1071–1083 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-016-9874-5

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