title: Exposure chambers for studying the partitioning of atmospheric PAHs in environmental compartments: validation and calibration using experimental and computational approaches.
abstract: The environmental partitioning of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) conditions their entry into food chains and subsequent risks for human health. The need for new experimental exposure devices for elucidating the mechanisms governing ecosystemic PAH transfer motivated the elaboration of an original small-scale exposure chamber (EC). A dual approach pairing experimentation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was selected to provide comprehensive validation of this EC as a tool to study the transfer and biological effects of atmospheric PAH pollution in microsystems. Soil samples and passive air samplers (PASs) were exposed to atmospheric pollution by phenanthrene (PHE), a gaseous PAH, for 2 weeks in examples of the EC being tested, set up under different conditions. Dynamic concentrations of atmospheric PHE and its uptake by PASs were simulated with CFD, results showing homogeneous distribution and constant atmospheric PHE concentrations inside the ECs. This work provides insight into the setting of given concentrations and pollution levels when using such ECs. The combination of experimentation and CFD is a successful ECs calibration method that should be developed with other semivolatile organic pollutants, including those that tend to partition in the aerosol phase.
authors.affiliation: Université de Franche-Comté, Chrono-environnement , UMR 6249 CNRS-UFC, BP 71427, Montbéliard Cedex, F-25211, France. dorine.desalme@univ-lorraine.fr
authors.forename: Dorine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Desalme
authors.forename: Jean-Claude
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Binet
authors.forename: Geneviève
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chiapusio
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.forename: Marie-Laure
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Toussaint
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Girardot
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bernard
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D001272:Atmosphere; D002138:Calibration; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons