Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China

This work comprehensively investigated the constituents, sources, and associated health risks of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) sampled during the autumn of 2020 in urban Nanjing, a megacity in the densely populated Yangtze River Delta region in China. The total VOC (TVOC, sum of 108 spec...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wang, Jingyun, Yue, Hao, Cui, Shijie, Zhang, Yunjiang, Li, Haiwei, Wang, Junfeng, Ge, Xinlei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9783090/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36548555
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10120722
_version_ 1784857495085252608
author Wang, Jingyun
Yue, Hao
Cui, Shijie
Zhang, Yunjiang
Li, Haiwei
Wang, Junfeng
Ge, Xinlei
author_facet Wang, Jingyun
Yue, Hao
Cui, Shijie
Zhang, Yunjiang
Li, Haiwei
Wang, Junfeng
Ge, Xinlei
author_sort Wang, Jingyun
collection PubMed
description This work comprehensively investigated the constituents, sources, and associated health risks of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) sampled during the autumn of 2020 in urban Nanjing, a megacity in the densely populated Yangtze River Delta region in China. The total VOC (TVOC, sum of 108 species) concentration was determined to be 29.04 ± 14.89 ppb, and it was consisted of alkanes (36.9%), oxygenated VOCs (19.9%), halogens (19.1%), aromatics (9.9%), alkenes (8.9%), alkynes (4.9%), and others (0.4%). The mean TVOC/NO(x) (ppbC/ppbv) ratio was only 3.32, indicating the ozone control is overall VOC-limited. In terms of the ozone formation potential (OFP), however, the largest contributor became aromatics (41.9%), followed by alkenes (27.6%), and alkanes (16.9%); aromatics were also the dominant species in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, indicative of the critical importance of aromatics reduction to the coordinated control of ozone and fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)). Mass ratios of ethylbenzene/xylene (E/X), isopentane/n-−pentane (I/N), and toluene/benzene (T/B) ratios all pointed to the significant influence of traffic on VOCs. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) revealed five sources showing that traffic was the largest contributor (29.2%), particularly in the morning. A biogenic source, however, became the most important source in the afternoon (31.3%). The calculated noncarcinogenic risk (NCR) and lifetime carcinogenic risk (LCR) of the VOCs were low, but four species, acrolein, benzene, 1,2-dichloroethane, and 1,2-dibromoethane, were found to possess risks exceeding the thresholds. Furthermore, we conducted a multilinear regression to apportion the health risks to the PMF-resolved sources. Results show that the biogenic source instead of traffic became the most prominent contributor to the TVOC NCR and its contribution in the afternoon even outpaced the sum of all other sources. In summary, our analysis reveals the priority of controls of aromatics and traffic/industrial emissions to the efficient coreduction of O(3) and PM(2.5); our analysis also underscores that biogenic emissions should be paid special attention if considering the direct health risks of VOCs.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9783090
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97830902022-12-24 Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China Wang, Jingyun Yue, Hao Cui, Shijie Zhang, Yunjiang Li, Haiwei Wang, Junfeng Ge, Xinlei Toxics Article This work comprehensively investigated the constituents, sources, and associated health risks of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) sampled during the autumn of 2020 in urban Nanjing, a megacity in the densely populated Yangtze River Delta region in China. The total VOC (TVOC, sum of 108 species) concentration was determined to be 29.04 ± 14.89 ppb, and it was consisted of alkanes (36.9%), oxygenated VOCs (19.9%), halogens (19.1%), aromatics (9.9%), alkenes (8.9%), alkynes (4.9%), and others (0.4%). The mean TVOC/NO(x) (ppbC/ppbv) ratio was only 3.32, indicating the ozone control is overall VOC-limited. In terms of the ozone formation potential (OFP), however, the largest contributor became aromatics (41.9%), followed by alkenes (27.6%), and alkanes (16.9%); aromatics were also the dominant species in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, indicative of the critical importance of aromatics reduction to the coordinated control of ozone and fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)). Mass ratios of ethylbenzene/xylene (E/X), isopentane/n-−pentane (I/N), and toluene/benzene (T/B) ratios all pointed to the significant influence of traffic on VOCs. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) revealed five sources showing that traffic was the largest contributor (29.2%), particularly in the morning. A biogenic source, however, became the most important source in the afternoon (31.3%). The calculated noncarcinogenic risk (NCR) and lifetime carcinogenic risk (LCR) of the VOCs were low, but four species, acrolein, benzene, 1,2-dichloroethane, and 1,2-dibromoethane, were found to possess risks exceeding the thresholds. Furthermore, we conducted a multilinear regression to apportion the health risks to the PMF-resolved sources. Results show that the biogenic source instead of traffic became the most prominent contributor to the TVOC NCR and its contribution in the afternoon even outpaced the sum of all other sources. In summary, our analysis reveals the priority of controls of aromatics and traffic/industrial emissions to the efficient coreduction of O(3) and PM(2.5); our analysis also underscores that biogenic emissions should be paid special attention if considering the direct health risks of VOCs. MDPI 2022-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9783090/ /pubmed/36548555 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10120722 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wang, Jingyun
Yue, Hao
Cui, Shijie
Zhang, Yunjiang
Li, Haiwei
Wang, Junfeng
Ge, Xinlei
Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China
title Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China
title_full Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China
title_fullStr Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China
title_full_unstemmed Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China
title_short Chemical Characteristics and Source-Specific Health Risks of the Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Nanjing, China
title_sort chemical characteristics and source-specific health risks of the volatile organic compounds in urban nanjing, china
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9783090/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36548555
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10120722
work_keys_str_mv AT wangjingyun chemicalcharacteristicsandsourcespecifichealthrisksofthevolatileorganiccompoundsinurbannanjingchina
AT yuehao chemicalcharacteristicsandsourcespecifichealthrisksofthevolatileorganiccompoundsinurbannanjingchina
AT cuishijie chemicalcharacteristicsandsourcespecifichealthrisksofthevolatileorganiccompoundsinurbannanjingchina
AT zhangyunjiang chemicalcharacteristicsandsourcespecifichealthrisksofthevolatileorganiccompoundsinurbannanjingchina
AT lihaiwei chemicalcharacteristicsandsourcespecifichealthrisksofthevolatileorganiccompoundsinurbannanjingchina
AT wangjunfeng chemicalcharacteristicsandsourcespecifichealthrisksofthevolatileorganiccompoundsinurbannanjingchina
AT gexinlei chemicalcharacteristicsandsourcespecifichealthrisksofthevolatileorganiccompoundsinurbannanjingchina