Water Air Soil Pollut DOI 10.1007/s11270-009-0089-6
Biological and Artificial Matrixes as PAH Accumulators: An Experimental Comparative Study Nicola Skert & Jari Falomo & Luigi Giorgini & Alessandro Acquavita & Lorenzo Capriglia & Roberto Grahonja & Nordio Miani
Received: 17 December 2008 / Accepted: 27 April 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract In order to find out a new effective accumulator of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) useful for monitoring studies on a large scale and low costs, the accumulation capacity of both biological and artificial matrixes (mosses and polyester fibers, respectively) has been tested. For this purposes, Hypnum cupressiforme and dacron® were exposed to pollution airborne in two sites located nearby an active iron industry and in center of the town of Trieste, where high PAH pollution spots, due to vehicular traffic, are usually detected. The samplers were exposed in six sampling sessions for 21 days. N. Skert (*) : J. Falomo : L. Giorgini : R. Grahonja : N. Miani Dipartimento Provinciale di Trieste, ARPA FVG (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente), Via La Marmora 13, 34127 Trieste, Italy e-mail:
[email protected] A. Acquavita Osservatorio Alto Adriatico, ARPA FVG (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente), Via Cairoli 14, 33057 Palmanova, Italy L. Capriglia Sezione Operativa Laboratorio Chimico, Ufficio delle Dogane di Trieste, Largo Panfili 1, 34132 Trieste, Italy
The results obtained were compared with data collected by active PAH samplers, usually employed for official widespread monitoring. The level of correlation between the data sets was calculated. Furthermore, a repeatability study of data was performed. According to the results, both matrixes are good PAH accumulators, though they show different skills. Keywords PAHs . Atmospheric pollution . Biomonitoring . Mosses . Dacron®
1 Introduction Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent an important group of ubiquitous environmental contaminants, in which structure consists of two or more fused aromatic rings. They are widespread throughout the environment (Blumer 1976; Suess 1976) and are derived from both natural and anthropic sources. Volcanic eruptions and forest fires are the most important natural origins, whereas anthropic sources include industrial activities, waste incineration, vehicular emissions, domestic heating systems, and, generally, all the processes involving the incomplete combustion of organic matter (Lim et al. 1999; Marr et al. 1999). PAH environmental concern depends on their carcinogenic and mutagenic proper-
Water Air Soil Pollut
ties (Denissenko et al. 1996). The PAH concentration in the biosphere (atmosphere, water, soil, and sediments) has been constantly raised up in the last century (Jones et al. 1989) due to the increasing anthropogenic emissions. In the atmosphere, PAHs may be present both in vapor and particulate phases, especially aerosols with a diameter less than 3 μm (Lane 1989). When atmospheric depositions are absent, these particles remain suspended in the atmosphere for periods ranging from 4 h to 40 days (Eswea and Corn 1971) and show wide deposition patterns. In order to control the distribution pattern and deposition of PAHs, the collection of atmospheric particulate matter represents a critical step. The classic system for particulate matter sampling consists of a low- or high-volume air sampler equipped with specific air filter and deposition collector. However, several authors focused on possible alternative monitoring systems employing vegetation samples such as pine needles and mosses (Wegener et al. 1992; Simonich and Hites 1995; Tremolada et al. 1996). In fact, the contamination level accumulated by vegetation can be analyzed as a surrogate for direct air sampling. In detail, mosses have some peculiar morphological features that make them ideal for the uptake of airborne pollutants: a large surface area (estimated as 1.6 m2/g; Darlington et al. 2001) and the absence of roots, which enable the collection of nutrients and water only from atmospheric depositions. In this manner, they receive vapor phase PAHs, which partition to their surfaces, and also capture particulate-associated PAHs. According to some authors, Hypnum cupressiforme accumulates PAHs more effectively than other moss species (Őtvős et al. 2004). On the other hand, mosses have both low lipid and total organic matter contents (
