Spatial variation of PM elemental composition between and within 20 European study areas--Results of the ESCAPE project.
An increasing number of epidemiological studies suggest that adverse health effects of air pollution may be related to particulate matter (PM) composition, particularly trace metals. However, we lack comprehensive data on the spatial distribution of these elements. We measured PM2.5 and PM10 in twenty study areas across Europe in three seasonal two-week periods over a year using Harvard impactors and standardized protocols. In each area, we selected street (ST), urban (UB) and regional background (RB) sites (totaling 20) to characterize local spatial variability. Elemental composition was determined by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis of all PM2.5 and PM10 filters. We selected a priori eight (Cu, Fe, K, Ni, S, Si, V, Zn) well-detected elements of health interest, which also roughly represented different sources including traffic, industry, ports, and wood burning. PM elemental composition varied greatly across Europe, indicating different regional influences. Average street to urban background ratios ranged from 0.90 (V) to 1.60 (Cu) for PM2.5 and from 0.93 (V) to 2.28 (Cu) for PM10. Our selected PM elements were variably correlated with the main pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, PM2.5 absorbance, NO2 and NOx) across Europe: in general, Cu and Fe in all size fractions were highly correlated (Pearson correlations above 0.75); Si and Zn in the coarse fractions were modestly correlated (between 0.5 and 0.75); and the remaining elements in the various size fractions had lower correlations (around 0.5 or below). This variability in correlation demonstrated the distinctly different spatial distributions of most of the elements. Variability of PM10_Cu and Fe was mostly due to within-study area differences (67% and 64% of overall variance, respectively) versus between-study area and exceeded that of most other traffic-related pollutants, including NO2 and soot, signaling the importance of non-tailpipe (e.g., brake wear) emissions in PM.
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland; Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: m.tsai@unibas.ch.
Ming-Yi
MY
Tsai
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Gerard
G
Hoek
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland; Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Marloes
M
Eeftens
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland; MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Kees
K
de Hoogh
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Rob
R
Beelen
Department of Air Hygiene, National Institute of Environmental Health, Budapest, Hungary.
Timea
T
Beregszászi
Epidemiology Department, Lazio Regional Health Service, Rome, Italy.
Giulia
G
Cesaroni
Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain.
Marta
M
Cirach
Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany; Environmental Science Center, Universität Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany.
Josef
J
Cyrys
Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain; Centre for Environmental Policy, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Audrey
A
De Nazelle
Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, England, United Kingdom; School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, United Kingdom.
Frank
F
de Vocht
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland.
Regina
R
Ducret-Stich
Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Kirsten
K
Eriksen
AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza - CPO Piemonte, Turin, Italy.
Claudia
C
Galassi
Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Regina
R
Gražuleviciene
Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Tomas
T
Gražulevicius
School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece.
Georgios
G
Grivas
Division of Hygiene - Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Alexandros
A
Gryparis
Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany.
Joachim
J
Heinrich
IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Barbara
B
Hoffmann
Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
Minas
M
Iakovides
TNO, Applied Research Organization, The Netherlands.
Menno
M
Keuken
IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Ursula
U
Krämer
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland.
Nino
N
Künzli
Department of Environmental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Kuopio, Finland.
Timo
T
Lanki
Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Christian
C
Madsen
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Kees
K
Meliefste
Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Anne-Sophie
AS
Merritt
Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, England, United Kingdom; Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
Anna
A
Mölter
MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Gioia
G
Mosler
Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain.
Mark J
MJ
Nieuwenhuijsen
Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Göran
G
Pershagen
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland; Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.
Harish
H
Phuleria
Air Quality & Sustainable Nanotachnology, IUTA Institut für Energie- und Umwelttechnik e.V., Duisburg, Germany.
Ulrich
U
Quass
Regional Reference Centre on Environment and Health, ARPA Emilia Romagna, Modena, Italy.
Andrea
A
Ranzi
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland.
Emmanuel
E
Schaffner
Centre for Atmospheric and Instrumentation Research (CAIR), University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, United Kingdom.
Ranjeet
R
Sokhi
French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS), Saint-Maurice Cedex, France.
Morgane
M
Stempfelet
Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
Euripides
E
Stephanou
IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Dorothea
D
Sugiri
Department of Environmental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Kuopio, Finland.
Pekka
P
Taimisto
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Marjan
M
Tewis
Department of Air Hygiene, National Institute of Environmental Health, Budapest, Hungary.
Orsolya
O
Udvardy
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Meng
M
Wang
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Bert
B
Brunekreef
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission
D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter
Air pollution; Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF); Exposure assessment; PM composition; PM(10); PM(2.5); Spatial contrasts; Trace elements