Seasonal and Spatial Variations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 Oxidative Potential in Five Urban and Rural Sites across Lombardia Region, Italy

Maria Chiara Pietrogrande, Giorgia Demaria, Cristina Colombi, Eleonora Cuccia and Umberto Dal Santo
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Maria Chiara Pietrogrande: Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 17/19, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
Giorgia Demaria: Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 17/19, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
Cristina Colombi: Environmental Monitoring Sector, Arpa Lombardia, Via Rosellini 17, 20124 Milano, Italy
Eleonora Cuccia: Environmental Monitoring Sector, Arpa Lombardia, Via Rosellini 17, 20124 Milano, Italy
Umberto Dal Santo: Environmental Monitoring Sector, Arpa Lombardia, Via Rosellini 17, 20124 Milano, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-16

Abstract: Oxidative potential (OP) of particulate matter (PM) is gaining strong interest as a promising health exposure metric. This study investigated OP of a large set of PM 10 and PM 2.5 samples collected at five urban and background sites near Milan (Italy), one of the largest and most polluted urban areas in Europe, afflicted with high particle levels. OP responses from two acellular assays, based on ascorbic acid (AA) and dithiothreitol (DTT), were combined with atmospheric detailed composition to examine any possible feature in OP with PM size fraction, spatial and seasonal variations. A general association of volume-normalized OP with PM mass was found; this association may be related to the clear seasonality observed, whereby there was higher OP activity in wintertime at all investigated sites. Univariate correlations were used to link OP with the concentrations of the major chemical markers of vehicular and biomass burning emissions. Of the two assays, AA was particularly sensitive towards transition metals in coarse particles released from vehicular traffic. The results obtained confirm that the responses from the two assays and their relationship with atmospheric pollutants are assay- and location-dependent, and that their combination is therefore helpful to singling out the PM redox-active compounds driving its oxidative properties.

Keywords: PM 10 and PM 2.5 particles; oxidative potential; dithiothreitol and ascorbic acid cell-free assays; chemical tracers; Lombardia region; seasonal and spatial variations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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