Seasonal Characteristics of the Chemical Composition of Fine Particles in Residences of Nanjing, China

Guozhi Cao, Jun Bi, Zongwei Ma, Zhijuan Shao and Jinnan Wang
Additional contact information
Guozhi Cao: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Jun Bi: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Zongwei Ma: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Zhijuan Shao: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Jinnan Wang: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Indoor fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and its chemical composition is important for human exposure as people spend most of their time indoors. However, few studies have investigated the multiseasonal characteristics of indoor PM 2.5 and its chemical composition in China. In this study, the chemical composition of PM 2.5 samples in residences was analyzed over four seasons in Nanjing, China. Indoor water-soluble ions exhibited similar seasonal variations (winter > autumn > summer > spring) to those from outdoors (winter > autumn > spring > summer) except in summer. Whereas, indoor metallic elements exhibited a different seasonal pattern from that of outdoors. The highest concentrations of indoor metallic elements were observed in summer when the outdoor concentrations were low. The different seasonal variations of the chemical composition between indoor and outdoor PM 2.5 indicated that people should consider both indoor and outdoor sources to reduce their exposure to air pollutants in different seasons. The carcinogenic risks for metallic elements were within the acceptable levels, while manganese (Mn) was found to have potential noncarcinogenic risk to humans. More attention should be paid to the pollution of Mn in the study area in the future. Moreover, the cumulative effect of noncarcinogenic PM 2.5 -bound elements should not be ignored.

Keywords: metallic elements; water-soluble ions; seasonal variation; indoor air quality; health risk assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/6/1066/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/6/1066/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:6:p:1066-:d:216885

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().