A chemical investigation of household solid fuel use and outdoor air pollution contributions to personal PM2.5 exposures
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In communities with household solid fuel use, transitioning to clean stoves/fuels often results in only moderate reductions in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures; the chemical composition of those exposures may help explain why. We collected personal exposure (men and women) and outdoor PM2.5 samples in villages in three Chinese provinces (Shanxi, Beijing, and Guangxi) and measured chemical components, including water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), ions, elements, and organic tracers. Source contributions from chemical mass balance modeling (biomass burning, coal combustion, vehicles, dust, and secondary inorganic aerosol) were similar between outdoor and personal PM2.5 samples. Principal component analysis of organic and inorganic components identified analogous sources, including a regional ambient source. Chemical components of PM2.5 exposures did not differ significantly by gender. Participants using coal had higher personal/outdoor (P/O) ratios of coal combustion tracers (picene, sulfate, As, and Pb) than those not using coal, but no such trend was observed for biomass burning tracers (levoglucosan, K+, WSOC). Picene and most levoglucosan P/O ratios exceeded 1 even among participants not using coal and biomass, respectively, indicating substantial indirect exposure to solid fuel emissions from other homes. Contributions of community-level emissions to exposures suggest that meaningful exposure reductions will likely require extensive fuel use changes within communities.
Date Issued
2021-11-24
Date Acceptance
2021-11-10
Citation
Environmental Science and Technology (Washington), 2021, 55 (23), pp.15969-15979
ISSN
0013-936X
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
15969
End Page
15979
Journal / Book Title
Environmental Science and Technology (Washington)
Volume
55
Issue
23
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. This work is published under CC BY 4.0 International license.
License URL
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, UK
Identifier
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c01368
Grant Number
103906/Z/14/Z
Pump-Priming Project
Subjects
PM2.5
household air pollution
molecular tracers
personal exposure
personal/outdoor ratio
solid fuels
source apportionment
Environmental Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-11-15