Spatial variation of PM elemental composition between and within 20 European study areas--Results of the ESCAPE project.

Tsai MY; Hoek G; Eeftens M; de Hoogh K; Beelen R; Beregszászi T; Cesaroni G; Cirach M; Cyrys J; De Nazelle A; de Vocht F; Ducret-Stich R; Eriksen K; Galassi C; Gražuleviciene R; Gražulevicius T; Grivas G; Gryparis A; Heinrich J; Hoffmann B; Iakovides M; Keuken M; Krämer U; Künzli N; Lanki T; Madsen C; Meliefste K; Merritt AS; Mölter A; Mosler G; Nieuwenhuijsen MJ; Pershagen G; Phuleria H; Quass U; Ranzi A; Schaffner E; Sokhi R; Stempfelet M; Stephanou E; Sugiri D; Taimisto P; Tewis M; Udvardy O; Wang M; Brunekreef B

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2015.04.015

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Journal article

Spatial variation of PM elemental composition between and within 20 European study areas--Results of the ESCAPE project.

Tsai MY 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.
Hoek G Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Eeftens M 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.
de Hoogh K 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.
Beelen R Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Beregszászi T Department of Air Hygiene, National Institute of Environmental Health, Budapest, Hungary.
Cesaroni G Epidemiology Department, Lazio Regional Health Service, Rome, Italy.
Cirach M Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain.
Cyrys J Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany; Environmental Science Center, Universität Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany.
De Nazelle A 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.
de Vocht F 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.
Ducret-Stich R Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland.
Eriksen K Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Galassi C AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza - CPO Piemonte, Turin, Italy.
Gražuleviciene R Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Gražulevicius T Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Grivas G School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece.
Gryparis A Division of Hygiene - Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Heinrich J Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany.
Hoffmann B IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Iakovides M Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
Keuken M TNO, Applied Research Organization, The Netherlands.
Krämer U IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Künzli N Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland.
Lanki T Department of Environmental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Kuopio, Finland.
Madsen C Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Meliefste K Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Merritt AS Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mölter A 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.
Mosler G MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Nieuwenhuijsen MJ Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain.
Pershagen G Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Phuleria H 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.
Quass U Air Quality & Sustainable Nanotachnology, IUTA Institut für Energie- und Umwelttechnik e.V., Duisburg, Germany.
Ranzi A Regional Reference Centre on Environment and Health, ARPA Emilia Romagna, Modena, Italy.
Schaffner E Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, 4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland.
Sokhi R Centre for Atmospheric and Instrumentation Research (CAIR), University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, United Kingdom.
Stempfelet M French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS), Saint-Maurice Cedex, France.
Stephanou E Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
Sugiri D IUF Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Taimisto P Department of Environmental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Kuopio, Finland.
Tewis M Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80178, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Udvardy O Department of Air Hygiene, National Institute of Environmental Health, Budapest, Hungary.
Wang M 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.
Brunekreef B 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.

2015-09-07

Published in:

Environment international. - 2015

Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF)

English 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.

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