EXPAH

Population Exposure to PAH

Publications

8th International Conference on Air quality Science and Application, Athens, 19-23 March 2012.
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The numerical models of heavy metals (HM) and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) airborne transport and deposition, developed by the EMEP centre MSC-E, have been considered in order to extend the capabilities of the Chemical Transport Model (CTM) FARM (Flexible Air quality Regional Model) to these pollutants and to fulfill the modeling requirements for the EXPAH project. In particular, the implementation of PAHs atmospheric reactions processes within the FARM model, has been one of the expected results of action 4.5 of the EXPAH project.
In the following sections we will describe the CTM FARM (section 2), its upgrade in order to include PAHs transformation processes (section 3) and an example of the application of the updated version of FARM over the Italian peninsula (section 4).
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The reliability of analytical procedures as well as the homogeneity and comparability of data have be investigated “on the field” through a preliminary 2x7-day campaigns conducted at three living/working buildings. The inter/intra laboratory variations on PAHs sampling and analysis have been evaluated, as well as the differences between low and high volume sampling of PM2.5. In the frame of action 3.2 of EXPAH project, a preliminary field campaign has been carried out collecting data of chemical composition of PM2.5, PAHs and VOCs, in both indoor and outdoor environments of two schools and one office, comparing them with corrispondent data collected at the urban stations of the Regional Environmental Network. This technical report contains detailed information about the above activities.
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The technical report contains instructions informations and remarks to be followed during the two regular field campaigns that will be carried out under the EXPAH project, derived from the results obtained during the preliminary field campaign condected under action 3.2.
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Poster of EXPAH project activities
Eurotox Conference - 47th Congress of the European Societies of Toxicology, held at the Palais des Congrès (Porte Maillot, Paris, France) from the 28th to the 31st August 2011.
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Comparison study of PM2,5 chemical composition by using MV and LV samplers
Techical Report - action 3.2.2
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LIFE+ Project EXPAH Action 4.2: Long range transport of PAHs and definition of computational domains for Rome city simulations.
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Technical Report on Ancillary Measurements and the Intercomparison Study – Action 3.2.3 Inter-comparison.
Both the preliminary investigation and the first regular campaign, originally foreseen to be undertaken by summer 2011, have been postponed due to the delay in the purchase of the sampling instruments. Nevertheless, an important activity has been performed, which is of key importance for future work.
Overall, three PM collections have been made in duplicate, inside the Metro network of Rome, to have preliminary information about the general quality (i.e., repeatability and reproducibility) of our analytical approach to measure PAH collected at low-volume conditions. Afterward, the PAH dimensional distribution in PM (eight size fractions between 0.18 and 18 µm) has been investigated both in indoor and outdoor environments.

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Technical report on ACTION 4.1: Collection of raw emission inventories and their upgrading.
The aim of EXPAH project is to describe population exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) compounds content in particulate matter and to quantify the environmental and health problems induced by these emissions. PAHs are produced by incomplete combustion of organic matter and are emitted by five major sources: domestic heating, vehicles exhaust gases, industrial combustion (including power generation and waste processing), agricultural and natural biomass burning. In urbanized areas domestic heating is usually the largest contributor of PAHs, even if Rome can receive contributions from mobile sources, two large airports (Fiumicino Hub and Ciampino), a urban waste landfill, two waste incinerators and an oil refinery located within the city suburbs.
In order to develop a complete emission inventory for the city of Rome and its surrounding area, it has been necessary to integrate different source of information characterized by diverse scales and space resolution, identify inconsistencies and integrate them to cover the space areas that will be covered by air quality model simulations.
Since we found out that Lazio Region emission inventory does not include PAHs, the Italian national Emission inventory (ISPRA2005), and other inventories available at European level (i.e. EMEP, TNO) have been used in the integration process. The national inventory is based on top- down methodology and it has been disaggregated at province level. European inventories are distributed as gridded pollutants emission that are therefore not directly connected with administrative units.
In this report results of this integrated approach are presented.
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