Assessment of atmospheric concentrations, gas/particle partitioning, cancer risks, sources, and atmospheric transport of PCDD/Fs in a suburban area of Bursa, Türkiye

Abstract

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PCDD/Fs) are a very high-priority air pollutant group as they pose serious threats to human and environmental health. Most of the PCDD/F research studies have been carried out in urban and industrial areas where these pollutants are expected to be in high concentrations. There are few studies conducted in suburban areas worldwide, especially in T & uuml;rkiye. In this study, a sampling campaign covering 12 months (June 2022-June 2023) was conducted in a suburban area in Bursa, T & uuml;rkiye, to address this gap. The total average concentration was found to be 22.6 +/- 3.21 fg I-TEQ/m(3). This value was found to be comparable to the results reported for suburban and rural areas worldwide. The influence of the seasonal effect on concentrations was seen as a strong negative correlation (r = -0.84, p < 0.001) was observed between total concentration values and temperature. A negative correlation was found between low chlorinated congener gas phase concentrations and inverse ambient temperature using Clausius-Clapeyron. In the study, the performance of 7 different gas/particle partitioning models was evaluated. It was aimed to investigate the factors affecting the gas/particle partitioning of PCDD/Fs by using models based on different parameters. According to their performance, the models were ranked as Harner-Bidleman approximate to Dachs-Eisenreich > Li-Ma-Yang > Junge-Pankow approximate to pp-LFER > QSPR > mp-pp-LFER. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that the main pollutant source in the region is traffic emissions. Back trajectory analysis indicated that air masses were transported to the sampling point from the organized industrial zones. Calculated cancer risk values revealed that there would be no significant risk due to inhalation of PCDD/Fs in the area.