Popa, R.-M.; Mustață, D.-M.; Ionel, I.; Balogh, R.-M. Metal Element Traces Sampled from Peri-Urban Road Verge Particulate Matter. Appl. Sci.2023, 13, 11649.
Popa, R.-M.; Mustață, D.-M.; Ionel, I.; Balogh, R.-M. Metal Element Traces Sampled from Peri-Urban Road Verge Particulate Matter. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 11649.
Popa, R.-M.; Mustață, D.-M.; Ionel, I.; Balogh, R.-M. Metal Element Traces Sampled from Peri-Urban Road Verge Particulate Matter. Appl. Sci.2023, 13, 11649.
Popa, R.-M.; Mustață, D.-M.; Ionel, I.; Balogh, R.-M. Metal Element Traces Sampled from Peri-Urban Road Verge Particulate Matter. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 11649.
Abstract
The objective of this research is to analyze metal elements like Na (sodium), Mg (magnesium), Al (aluminum), Si (silicon), Pb (lead), K (potassium), Ca (calcium), and Fe (iron) found in dust particles within two distinct areas from which the sampling has been done. First sampling was taken from the road verge of a highly trafficked road section, while the second sampling was done in a residential garden area 90 m away from the road. Several metal elements have been detected, with a high difference for Silicon Si, which present higher concentrations in the dust sampled from the road verge area. Pb has only been detected in the samples taken from the road verge, which could be explained by residual remnants from old lead gasoline, and wheel weights. Additionally, airborne particulate matter (PM) concentrations have been measured, during the same episode, in comparison between the road verge and the garden area, presenting a substantial difference in the concentration levels, deducing that dense vegetation is protecting and blocking a majority of airborne PM. A literature highlight of health effects of different metal elements and PM concentrations is presented.
Keywords
Metals in PM; Dynamic Light Scattering measurement; microscopic analysis; PM concentrations; inhalable-, thoracic-, and alveolar-sized particles
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Pollution
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
