Elsevier

Atmospheric Environment

Volume 41, Issue 28, September 2007, Pages 5876-5886
Atmospheric Environment

Assessment of variations in atmospheric PCDD/Fs by Asian dust in Southeastern Korea

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.03.025Get rights and content

Abstract

Atmospheric concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were measured in southeastern Korea during the spring of 2002. During this period, severe Asian dust events (ADs) occurred throughout Korea. Total suspended particulates (TSP) of ADs (456.8 μg m−3) increased approximately 3.6-fold compared with non-Asian dust events (NADs; 128.5 μg m−3). However, the concentrations of PCDD/Fs (average concentration, 3.34 pg m−3) did not increase as much as TSP; there was not a significant difference in the concentrations of particle-bound PCDD/Fs collected between ADs (2.45 pg m−3) and NADs (2.05 pg m−3). Meanwhile, according to TSP levels, the concentrations during NADs were 2.8-fold higher than ADs (16.73 and 5.98 ng g−1-TSP, respectively). High TSP levels during sand storms without an increase in PCDD/Fs reflected an increase in coarse and accumulation mode particles. Gas/particle partitioning studies revealed the additional inputs of particulate matters to the air during ADs which did not relate with the increase of PCDD/Fs. Furthermore, emissions from ADs may consist of relatively complex atmospheric particles; back trajectories showed air masses moving at low altitudes over Korea, but there were no differences in PCDD/Fs or atmospheric pollutants regardless of air movements. The study area, which is located in southeastern Korea, might be affected by both marine and regional anthropogenic sources, which do not appear to cause clear differences in PCDD/F concentrations or congener profiles between different air trajectories.

Introduction

Asian dust events over East Asia arising from China occur every year. The rapid desertification of parts of central China in recent years has resulted in an increase in the intensity and frequency of these dust storms throughout Korea. Long-range transport by Asian dusts has been reported for particles (Chun et al., 2001; Park and Kim, 2006), heavy metals, nitrate, and sulfate (Fang et al., 1999; Mori et al., 2003; Hsu et al., 2005). Furthermore, a relationship between mortality and dust storms has been found in places influenced by heavy storm (Kwon et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2004). Therefore, within the framework of the Aerosol Characterization Experiment—Asia, many collaborative experiments were performed to study the impacts of Asian dusts on the environment (In and Park, 2003; Mori et al., 2003; Ma et al., 2004; Arimoto et al., 2006). These studies, however, have mainly focused on the properties of the dust storms themselves (numbers and compositions of particles) and the optical depth during storming (Lee et al., 2004; Ogunjobi et al., 2004; Kim et al., 2005). Due to the intensity of recent sand storms and the rapid industrialization of China, it is possible that a range of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are also transported.

The atmosphere plays an important role in the long-range global and regional transport of contaminants. Therefore, many studies have investigated how POPs behave within the atmosphere (Lohmann and Jones, 1998), but few studies have examined the interactions of POPs with Asian dust and so far, there is no clear evidence of whether POPs are transported over long distances by Asian dust. Significant increases in polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were not found in Quingdao, China or in Jeju and Seoul, Korea (Ghim et al., 2003; Guo et al., 2003; Park et al., 2006), but in another study, levels of PAHs were found to increase by 40% as a result of Asian dusts in Seoul, Korea (Park et al., 2001). Variations in polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) associated with Asian dust are also observed from study to study. Chi and Chang (2006) found dramatic increases of particle-bound PCDD/Fs in Taiwan, but increases in PCDD/Fs were not observed in Jeju, Korea (Ghim et al., 2003). Therefore, the hazards of Asian dusts and whether these heavy storms transport POPs to other regions remain controversial.

In this study, we investigated whether PCDD/F concentrations change in the ambient air during Asian dust events. During the spring of 2002, there were several intense Asian dust events throughout Korea, and both particle and vapor phases of PCDD/Fs were obtained in March and April, 2002, in southeastern Korea. During this period, two Asian dust events occurred (21–23 March and 8–10 April). In this study, we assessed the atmospheric PCDD/F burden during these dust storms over a city in southeast Korea.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

A high volume air sampler (DHA-1000S, SIBATA) was deployed in Pohang, Korea (36°02, 129°24). In this city, there is a large steel complex on the east coastal area. However, the sampling site in western area in the city has been known to be rarely affected by the emissions from the steel complex due to the main wind direction (northeastern winds). During 21 March–20 April, 2002, a total 12 air samples were collected with air volume of 1000 m3 aspirated over a 24 h period. Glass fiber filters

Levels of atmospheric particles and PCDD/Fs for Asian dust (ADS) and non-Asian dust events (NADS)

The average TSP content collected by GFFs was 238±221 μg m−3. The levels of TSP varied according to the date of air sampling. On the days designated as ADs, TSP concentrations were high (457±287 μg m−3), with values approximately 3.6-fold higher than those during NADs (129±20.2 μg m−3). In addition, the regional meteorological observatory reported an increase in particulate matter of less than 10 μm (PM10) during ADs compared to NADs (540 and 130 μg m−3, respectively). During this period, other regions

Conclusion

In this study, we tried to assess the effects of ADs on atmospheric levels of PCDD/Fs. Despite the very large increase in particulate matter during ADs, there were no obvious differences in the levels of PCDD/Fs or atmospheric pollutants. This is probably due to predominance of relatively coarse particles during these events as well as the high altitude of air masses over the Korean peninsula, which may limit the absorption of POPs. Due to the location of the sampling region, the samples may

Acknowledgment

This work was financially supported by the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) project and the Brain Korea 21 project.

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