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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
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 |