Assessment of Trace Elements Directly from Archived Total Suspended Particulate Filters by Laser Ablation ICP-MS: A Case Study of South Carolina

Overview

Journal J Trace Elem Miner

Date 2023 Feb 13

PMID 36776477

Authors

Sarah Commodore

Steven Christopher

Bethany Wolf

Erik Svendsen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Exposure to particulate air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risk factors for adverse human health outcomes. However, the constituents that may be responsible for such adverse health effects have not been fully studied.

Methods: Total suspended particulates filters collected every 6 days in 2011 from three South Carolina locations were used in this case study. An inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer interfaced with a laser ablation system (LA-ICP-MS) was used to directly analyze 41 inorganic elemental species on air pollution filters. Then, machine learning and multivariate statistical methods was employed to identify combinatorial patterns in the data and classify sites based on their elemental composition.

Results: Forty-one elements were assessed and 33 were used in subsequent analysis. Correlations between United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)'s chemical analysis dataset and data from the current study revealed significant associations between 7/15 elements with enough variation for comparison (r between 0.28 to 0.66, <0.05). Subsequent multivariate analyses revealed four distinct patterns in the distribution of elements by sample location throughout the year.

Conclusion: The different airborne elements may need to be assessed to understand combinations of elements which occur together over space and/or time. Such information can be helpful in planning effective counter measures and strategies to control particulate air pollution.

References

Genchi G, Carocci A, Lauria G, Sinicropi M, Catalano A . Nickel: Human Health and Environmental Toxicology. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020; 17(3). PMC: 7037090. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17030679. View

Pearce J, Waller L, Chang H, Klein M, Mulholland J, Sarnat J . Using self-organizing maps to develop ambient air quality classifications: a time series example. Environ Health. 2014; 13:56. PMC: 4098670. DOI: 10.1186/1476-069X-13-56. View

West J, Cohen A, Dentener F, Brunekreef B, Zhu T, Armstrong B . "What We Breathe Impacts Our Health: Improving Understanding of the Link between Air Pollution and Health". Environ Sci Technol. 2016; 50(10):4895-904. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b03827. View

Cocozza C, Alterio E, Bachmann O, Guillong M, Sitzia T, Cherubini P . Monitoring air pollution close to a cement plant and in a multi-source industrial area through tree-ring analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021; 28(38):54030-54040. PMC: 8476389. DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-14446-9. View

Commodore A, Wilson S, Muhammad O, Svendsen E, Pearce J . Community-based participatory research for the study of air pollution: a review of motivations, approaches, and outcomes. Environ Monit Assess. 2017; 189(8):378. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-017-6063-7. View

Brunekreef B, Holgate S . Air pollution and health. Lancet. 2002; 360(9341):1233-42. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11274-8. View

Bell M, Dominici F, Ebisu K, Zeger S, Samet J . Spatial and temporal variation in PM(2.5) chemical composition in the United States for health effects studies. Environ Health Perspect. 2007; 115(7):989-95. PMC: 1913582. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.9621. View

Schwartz J, Bind M, Koutrakis P . Estimating Causal Effects of Local Air Pollution on Daily Deaths: Effect of Low Levels. Environ Health Perspect. 2016; 125(1):23-29. PMC: 5226700. DOI: 10.1289/EHP232. View

Cohen A, Brauer M, Burnett R, Anderson H, Frostad J, Estep K . Estimates and 25-year trends of the global burden of disease attributable to ambient air pollution: an analysis of data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2015. Lancet. 2017; 389(10082):1907-1918. PMC: 5439030. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30505-6. View

10.

Chong J, Wishart D, Xia J . Using MetaboAnalyst 4.0 for Comprehensive and Integrative Metabolomics Data Analysis. Curr Protoc Bioinformatics. 2019; 68(1):e86. DOI: 10.1002/cpbi.86. View

11.

Rule A, Koehler K . Particle Constituents and Oxidative Potential: Insights into Differential Fine Particulate Matter Toxicity. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022; 206(11):1310-1312. PMC: 9746860. DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202208-1513ED. View

12.

Goddard S, Williams K, Robins C, Brown R . Determination of antimony and barium in UK air quality samples as indicators of non-exhaust traffic emissions. Environ Monit Assess. 2019; 191(11):641. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-019-7774-8. View

13.

Peng X, Wang W, Xia M, Chen H, Ravishankara A, Li Q . An unexpected large continental source of reactive bromine and chlorine with significant impact on wintertime air quality. Natl Sci Rev. 2021; 8(7):nwaa304. PMC: 8310770. DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa304. View

14.

Glaus R, Koch J, Gunther D . Portable laser ablation sampling device for elemental fingerprinting of objects outside the laboratory with laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Anal Chem. 2012; 84(12):5358-64. DOI: 10.1021/ac3008626. View

15.

Weber R, Kiang C, Chameides W, Orsini D, St J, Chang M . Short-term temporal variation in PM2.5 mass and chemical composition during the Atlanta Supersite Experiment, 1999. J Air Waste Manag Assoc. 2003; 53(1):84-91. DOI: 10.1080/10473289.2003.10466123. View

16.

Levy I, Mihele C, Lu G, Narayan J, Brook J . Evaluating multipollutant exposure and urban air quality: pollutant interrelationships, neighborhood variability, and nitrogen dioxide as a proxy pollutant. Environ Health Perspect. 2013; 122(1):65-72. PMC: 3888565. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1306518. View

17.

Austin E, Coull B, Zanobetti A, Koutrakis P . A framework to spatially cluster air pollution monitoring sites in US based on the PM2.5 composition. Environ Int. 2013; 59:244-54. PMC: 3878877. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2013.06.003. View

18.

Chow J, Doraiswamy P, Watson J, Chen L, Ho S, Sodeman D . Advances in integrated and continuous measurements for particle mass and chemical composition. J Air Waste Manag Assoc. 2008; 58(2):141-63. DOI: 10.3155/1047-3289.58.2.141. View

19.

Dominici F, Zigler C . Best Practices for Gauging Evidence of Causality in Air Pollution Epidemiology. Am J Epidemiol. 2017; 186(12):1303-1309. PMC: 5860368. DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwx307. View

20.

Di Q, Wang Y, Zanobetti A, Wang Y, Koutrakis P, Choirat C . Air Pollution and Mortality in the Medicare Population. N Engl J Med. 2017; 376(26):2513-2522. PMC: 5766848. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1702747. View