Source apportionments of ambient fine particulate matter in Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian cities.
This manuscript evaluates spatial and temporal variations of source contributions to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian cities. Twenty-four hour integrated PM2.5samples were collected every six days over a 1-year period (January to December 2007) in four cities in Israel (West Jerusalem, Eilat, Tel Aviv, and Haifa), four cities in Jordan (Amman, Aqaba, Rahma, and Zarka), and three cities in Palestine (Nablus, East Jerusalem, and Hebron). The PM2.5samples were analyzed for major chemical components, including organic carbon and elemental carbon, ions, and metals, and the results were used in a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model to estimate source contributions to PM2.5mass. Nine sources, including secondary sulfate, secondary nitrate, mobile, industrial lead sources, dust, construction dust, biomass burning, fuel oil combustion and sea salt, were identified across the sampling sites. Secondary sulfate was the dominant source, contributing 35% of the total PM2.5mass, and it showed relatively homogeneous temporal trends of daily source contribution in the study area. Mobile sources were found to be the second greatest contributor to PM2.5mass in the large metropolitan cities, such as Tel Aviv, Hebron, and West and East Jerusalem. Other sources (i.e. industrial lead sources, construction dust, and fuel oil combustion) were closely related to local emissions within individual cities. This study demonstrates how international cooperation can facilitate air pollution studies that address regional air pollution issues and the incremental differences across cities in a common airshed. It also provides a model to study air pollution in regions with limited air quality monitoring capacity that have persistent and emerging air quality problems, such as Africa, South Asia and Central America.
Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, South Korea; Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Jongbae
J
Heo
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China; Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Bo
B
Wu
Al Quads Nutrition and Health Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Quds University, Beit Hanina, P.O. Box 51000, East Jerusalem, Palestine.
Ziad
Z
Abdeen
Al Quads Nutrition and Health Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Quds University, Beit Hanina, P.O. Box 51000, East Jerusalem, Palestine.
Radwan
R
Qasrawi
Department of Environmental Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Jeremy A
JA
Sarnat
Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem, Israel.
Geula
G
Sharf
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Kobby
K
Shpund
Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Electronic address: jjschauer@wisc.edu.
James J
JJ
Schauer
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018912:Arabs; D002244:Carbon; D002947:Cities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007597:Jordan; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009566:Nitrates; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*
D000393:Air Pollutants; D004391:Dust; D009566:Nitrates; D052638:Particulate Matter; D002244:Carbon
Middle East; PM(2.5); PMF; Source apportionment