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Atmospheric emissions of respirable quartz from industrial activities in China

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Abstract

Quartz is classified as a group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Atmospheric emissions of respirable quartz in particulate matter released from industrial activities are important for evaluating human exposure. Here we quantified the mass concentrations of quartz as a constituent of particulate matter collected from 118 full-scale industrial plants, comprising 13 main source categories, with the aim of identifying primary industrial contributors. The sources with the highest quartz mass concentrations are waste incineration and electric-arc furnace steelmaking, with average values of 16,924 μg g−1 and 12,005 μg g−1, respectively. Total atmospheric emissions of quartz from the investigated industrial sources are 24,581.3 t. Cement kiln co-processing solid waste, coking plants, pig-iron blast furnaces, iron-ore sintering and steelmaking electric-arc furnaces were identified as the major industrial sources contributing to quartz emissions in China. Quartz emissions arising from the 13 industrial sources could generate up to 77.2% increment in cancer risk for China owing to the high density of these activities. These results provide important fundamental data to assess exposure risks in the general population and enhance sustainability of industrial development.

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Fig. 1: Quartz mass concentrations in particulate matters from 13 industrial sectors.
Fig. 2: Spatial distributions of quartz emissions based on 13 industrial sectors.
Fig. 3: Total quartz emissions of 13 industrial sectors in China.
Fig. 4: Relationship between industrial emissions and economic development.

Data availability

The essential dataset required for interpreting, verifying and expanding upon the research is presented in Supplementary Information. Mass concentrations of respirable quartz for Figs. 1–4 are detailed in Supplementary Information. Data used in Figs. 2 and 3 and Supplementary Tables 2 and 11 for emission assessment were sourced from research findings, international industry associations and official government documents (https://www.stats.gov.cn/english/), as outlined and accordingly referenced in Methods. Published data regarding respirable quartz in workplace air and atmosphere are derived from references summarized in Supplementary Tables 1 and 6. Parameters used for assessing carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks are sourced from official government documents, introduced in Supplementary equations 2–5 and cited in the references (https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/rags_a.pdf; https://www.mee.gov.cn/). Information concerning samples from actual industrial activities is presented in Supplementary Table 9. The maps (Figs. 2 and 3 and Supplementary Fig. 2) are based on free vector data sourced from the ‘Database of National Catalogue Service for Geographic Information [GS(2020)4619]’ (https://www.resdc.cn/DOI/doi.aspx?DOIid=122) and were created using ArcGIS (version 10.2) software. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant numbers XDB0750400, XDB0750100, XDB0750000) (G.L.), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 92143201 (G.L.), 22076201 (G.L.), 21936007 (M.Z. and L.Y.) and 22376204 (L.Y.)), Chinese Academy of Sciences Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (grant number YSBR-086) (G.J) and the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) (grant number 2019 QZKK0605) (G.L.). We thank C. Yuan, D. Pan, C. Li, P. Lv, F. Yang, Y. Li, J. Yang, X. Han, N. Sang and H. Yin for their great help in sample collection. We appreciate Q. Liu for his insightful discussion on the revised paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, China

    Qiuting Yang, Guorui Liu, Lili Yang, Jianghui Yun, Minghui Zheng & Guibin Jiang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, China

    Qiuting Yang, Guorui Liu, Lili Yang, Jianghui Yun, **aoyue Zhang, Chenyan Zhao, Minghui Zheng & Guibin Jiang

  3. School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS, Hangzhou, China

    Guorui Liu, **aoyue Zhang, Chenyan Zhao, Minghui Zheng & Guibin Jiang

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  1. Qiuting Yang
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Contributions

Q.Y. conducted the production site field surveys, collected samples, designed the experiments, analysed the data and authored the paper. G.L. conceptualized the study, conducted field surveys, wrote and revised the paper and acquired funding. L.Y. collected samples, designed the experiment, analysed the data, revised the paper and acquired funding. J.Y., X.Z. and C.Z. assisted with sample preparation. M.Z. supervised the study and secured funding. G.J. supervised the study and secured funding. All authors approved the final paper.

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Correspondence to Guorui Liu.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Gang Li and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–8, Tables 1–11 and equations 1–6.

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Supplementary Data 1

Source data for Supplementary Fig. 1.

Supplementary Data 2

Source data for Supplementary Fig. 7.

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Source Data Fig. 1

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Statistical source data for Fig. 2.

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Source Data Fig. 4

Statistical source data for Fig. 4.

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Yang, Q., Liu, G., Yang, L. et al. Atmospheric emissions of respirable quartz from industrial activities in China. Nat Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01388-6

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