Chemistry for Sustainable Development 19 (2011) 363�369 363

UDC 551.513.551.551.55

Evaluation of the Quality of Atmospheric Air in Novosibirskon the Basis of the Mass Concentration of Solid Particles

T. S. SELEGEY1, K. P. KUTSENOGII2, N. N. FILONENKO1, S. A. POPOVA2, T. N. LENKOVSKAYA1 and M. A. BIZIN2

1Siberian Regional Research Hydrometeorological Institute,Ul. Sovetskaya 30, Novosibirsk 630099 (Russia)

E-mail: selegey@sibnigmi.ru

2Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences,Ul. Institutskaya 3, Novosibirsk 630090 (Russia)

E-mail:koutsen@kinetics.nsc.ru

(Received June 6, 2010)

Abstract

Evaluation of the quality of atmospheric air in Novosibirsk was made on the basis of the examinationof solid suspended particles (SSP) measured by the Rosgidromet system and by the Institute of ChemicalKinetics and Combustion of the SB RAS. It was established that the fraction of particles ≤10 µm (SP10) inSSP is equal to 0.67. Evaluation of the quality of atmospheric air on the basis of SP10 did not reveal otherpollutants in the urban air as established by Rosgidromet according to the existing procedure.

Key words: quality of atmospheric air, solid suspended particles (SSP), mass concentration of aerosol,particles of the fraction ≤10 µm (SP10), maximum permissible concentration, quality standard, populationhealth, life interval

INTRODUCTION

According to modern estimates of the Eu-ropean Section of the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO), aerosol particles along with ozonepresent in the atmospheric air pose the majordanger for the health of population [1]. Coarseand fine particles have different effects on hu-man health. Coarse aerosol particles penetrateonly the upper air passages, while fine parti-cles, as a rule, get into the lungs and deposit inthe lower layers of the respiratory tract. So, therisk of diseases connected with the penetrationof aerosol particles into human organism dependson size fraction. In Russia and in the countries offormer USSR investigations of air pollution withdust are carried out without separating the par-ticles into coarse and fine fractions. Suspendedmatter including the entire spectrum of solid par-ticles is measured, while the countries of Europeand the USA follow another approach to the eval-

uation of air quality on the basis of its pollutionwith dust. Thus, to characterize air quality, PM10

term has been introduced. This term characteriz-es the entire fraction of suspended particles withthe aerodynamic diameter of 10 µm, though larg-er suspended particles with larger diameters canalso be present in PM10.

Russia starting to actively join the Europe-an and world community is a member of WHO,so the problem of levelling the approaches tothe evaluation of atmospheric air quality onthe basis of the concentrations of a numberof admixtures including dust is becoming ur-gent. Due to a combination of the efforts ofthe Siberian Regional Research Hydrometeo-rological Institute and the Institute of Chemi-cal Kinetics and Combustion (ICKC) of the SBRAS, an evaluation of atmospheric air qualitywas carried out in Novosibirsk on the basis ofthe data on dust concentration measure usingdifferent techniques.

364 T. S. SELEGEY et al.

Fig. 1. Positions of the sites of observation of atmospheric air pollution in Novosibirsk: 1 � observationstation and its number; 2 � the site of observations of the mass aerosol concentration; 3 � meteorologicalstation in Ogurtsovo settlement; 4 � the boundary of the city territory.

EXPERIMENTAL

The state control of atmospheric air qualityin Novosibirsk is carried out by the West Sibe-rian Centre for Environmental Monitoring ofthe Roskomgidromet. This centre performs ob-servations of atmospheric air pollution withdust (suspended matter) at nine observation sites.Observations are carried out at 7.00, 13.00 and19.00 (local time) every day except Sunday andholidays. The positions of observations sites areshown in Fig. 1. Sampling method is based onthe determination of the mass of suspended

dust particles held on AFA-KhA-20 filters froma definite air volume passing through the filterfor 20 min. The relative error of the method is±25 %, the absolute error of the measurementof dust mass on the filter is 0.2 mg, and thelimiting relative error of the determination ofair volume passing through the filter is 6 % [2].

Systematic works aimed at the investigationof aerosol are carried out at the ICKC duringthe recent decades within the Aerosols of Si-beria programme. Measurements of the massconcentration of aerosol are carried out in anumber of stationary observation stations of

EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR IN NOVOSIBIRSK 365

Fig. 2. Distribution of yearly averaged concentrations of suspended matter over Novosibirsk(2005�2007): 1 � isolines of the concentrations of suspended matter, fractions of MPC24.

the institute. One of these stations is situatedin Novosibirsk, at the territory of the munici-pal hospital No. 34 (the left bank of the Ob Riv-er), where the mass concentration of aerosolwas measured during the years 2005�2007. Sam-ples were collected on the fine-fibrous aerosolfilters AFA-KhA-20 with the help of filteringventilation set-up pumping the air at a rate of13 m3/h during 24 h. The error of the methodis ±1 %. Observations were carried out in se-ries, 30 days each, over the seasons (winter,spring, summer, autumn). The values of themass concentration of aerosol were obtained by

averaging over 24 h not during the natural daybut with a shift by 8�12 h, which later on af-fected the results of comparative analysis.

So, the measured solid suspended matter(SSM) characterizing all the fractions ofparticles in atmospheric dust are called inRoskomgidromet �suspended matter� (q), andin the ICKC the same value is called massconcentration of aerosol (C). These are similarcharacteristics of atmospheric air quality on thebasis of its dust content and should be closelyrelated to each other.

366 T. S. SELEGEY et al.

Fig. 3. Distribution of the maximal concentrations of suspended matter over Novosibirsk (2005�2007):1 � isolines of the concentrations of suspended matter, fraction of MPCs.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Before we pass to the comparative analysisof the concentrations of suspended matter (qm, C)averaged over 24 h, it is necessary to clear upthe situation with atmospheric air pollution withsuspended matter (dust) in Novosibirsk over theperiod under consideration. For this purpose,using the data reported in [3], we treated thedata of observations of suspended matter con-centrations separately over each observation siteand in general over the city. On the basis ofthese results, we plotted the schematic maps

of the distribution of year-averaged and max-imal concentrations of suspended matter overthe territory of Novosibirsk (Figs. 2, 3).

One can see (see Fig. 2) that the pollution ofatmospheric air with dust over the whole ter-ritory of Novosibirsk exceeds the sanitary andhygienic standards by a factor of 1.1�2.2. Atthis background, three foci with the heaviestair pollution with dust are distinguished: Per-vomayskiy District (qm = 2.2MPC24, whereMPC24 is maximal permissible concentrationaveraged over 24 h); Zaeltsovskiy District, alongthe overpass (qm = 1.6MPC24); Leninskiy Dis-

EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR IN NOVOSIBIRSK 367

Fig. 4. Annual variations of qm (1, 2) and Cmass (3): 1, 2 � stationsNos. 19 and 25, respectively; 3 � Municipal Hospital No. 34.

trict, near power plants Nos. 2 and 3, as wellas other industrial objects (qm = 1.5MPC24).

In the Pervomayskiy District, atmosphericair pollution with suspended matter is causedby a large number of small boiler plants, pri-vate sector, and insufficient land improvement.The site of dust concentration observations inZaeltsovskiy District (Station No. 26) is situatedat the road with heavy traffic along which nu-merous garages, vehicle repair works etc. aresituated. In Leninskiy District, increased pollu-tion of atmospheric air with dust is connectedwith emissions from power plants Nos. 2 and 3as well as other industrial objects. Relativelyclean region is the south-western territory ofthe city (Zatulinka, Chyomy) where qm =1.1MPC24.

Maximal single concentrations of suspend-ed matter (see Fig. 3) in different regions ofthe city during the period under considerationexceeded the maximal permissible single con-centrations (Cs) by a factor of 3.0�5.8. The high-est concentrations were detected near powerplants Nos. 2 and 3 (Station No. 19) at a level of5.8MPCs. Similarly high dust concentrations weredetected also at the territory of ObGES (Sta-tion No. 47) but that was a short-term episodein April only.

So, the pollution of atmospheric air withsuspended matter in Novosibirsk is different indifferent city districts and is determined by thedistance from industrial objects, roads withheavy traffic, transport of air flows etc.

The question arises: what concentrations ofsuspended matter are to be used for compari-son with the mass concentration of aerosol?Observation sites situated at the right bank ofthe Ob River are excluded because they are tooremote from the site of C value observationsand are included into their own circulation pro-cess the boundary of which is the Ob River asa natural separating factor. It draws pollutedair flows into the channel and carries themdownstream [4]. Two left-bank observation sta-tions are left for comparison: stations Nos. 19and 25. The nearest station (No. 19) is situatedat a distance of 1.75 km to the north from thehospital No. 34, where observations of the massconcentration of aerosol were carried out bythe ICKC. Station No. 25 is situated at a dis-tance of 4 km to the south-east from the hos-

pital. To avoid erroneous conclusions, compar-ative analysis of qm and C values was carriedout with the data from the above-indicated ob-servation stations.

The annual variations of monthly averagedconcentrations of suspended matter at stationsNos. 19 and 25 and the mass concentration ofaerosol are shown in Fig. 4. One can see thatthe annual variations of monthly averaged con-centrations of suspended matter measured atstation No. 19 and monthly averaged C valuesmeasured at the territory of the MunicipalHospital No. 34 have the same maximum ap-pearing during the same period (April). Themaximum of monthly averaged dust concen-trations at station No. 25 is shifted to May. Thecurves of the annual variation have specificfeatures for each observation site and are notquite identical but they conserve the generaltrend to increased monthly averaged concen-trations in spring months and decreased valuesin winter months.

It follows from the analysis of data shownin Fig. 4 that monthly averaged concentrationsof suspended matter (qm) exceed C values by afactor of 1.5�5.0. On the one hand, this excessis explained by the absence of nighttime ob-servations in the Rosgidromet system, whichresults in the incomplete coverage of the 24-hperiod. On the other hand, the major differ-ence is in the method of concentration mea-surements. The Rosgidromet stations performsampling three times a day for 20 min each,and the daily averaged concentrations are cal-culated from these data; while at the ICKC air

368 T. S. SELEGEY et al.

samples are collected on filters for 24 h, andthe results are averaged over the 24 h interval.For this reason, different results were obtainedfor the same material (in the first case it is aero-sol, in the second case it is suspended matter)sampled on the same filters but with differentamounts of polluted air pumped, different sam-pling times and averaging periods.

A comparative analysis of C and qm aver-aged over 24 h near the Hospital No. 34 over thesynchronous series of observations, both for sta-tion No. 19 and for station No. 25, showed largediscrepancies. Correlation coefficients (r) betweenC and qm separately over seasons and in generalfor stations Nos. 19 and 25 are given below:

Winter Spring Summer Autumn Annual

No. 19 0.10 0.53 0.08 0.02 0.35

No. 25 0.01 0.23 0.04 0.10 0.29

One can see that the correlation coefficientfor station No. 19 is relatively significant onlyin spring (during the maximal dust content) andis equal to 0.53. During other seasons, any cor-relations between the values under consider-ation are almost completely absent, which couldbe expected because the series under compari-son are not correct. The fact is that the dis-tance between observation sites is large, andthe levels of pollution are formed under dif-ferent meteorological and emission factors.

As we have mentioned above, in Europeancountries and the USA in order to evaluate thequality of atmospheric air they measure notthe whole fractional composition of solid sus-pended matter but only definite fractions. Forthis purpose, the term PM10 was introduced. Itcharacterizes the fraction of suspended matterwith the aerodynamic diameter 10 mm andsmaller, though larger suspended particles canalso be present [1].

Different methods to measure atmosphericair pollution with dust in Russian Federationand in the countries of European Communityand the USA define also different standardsaccepted for air quality assessment. In Russia,the measured concentrations of suspended par-ticles are compared with the maximum permis-sible concentration (MPC). Single (measuredduring 20 min) concentrations are comparedwith the maximal single permissible concentra-tion (MPCs) which must not exceed 500 mg/m3.Daily, monthly and yearly averaged concen-

trations are compared with the maximal per-missible concentration averaged over 24 h(MPC24) which is equal to 150 µg/m3 [5]. Thestandard of atmospheric air quality for PM10

in 15 European countries for the daily aver-aged dust concentration is 50 µg/m3, for year-averaged concentration it is 20 µg/m3 [4].

If we accept that the mass concentrationof aerosol Cmass corresponds to the concentrationof solid suspended particles (SSP) in the termsof WHO, it is necessary to establish the fractionof PM10 particles in Cmass. For the conditionsof Siberian cities, calculations were carried outat the ICKC of the SB RAS to distinguish theratios of spectra of different size fractionswithin Cmass. It was established that for Siberiancities C10 (PM10) = 0.67Cmass. This value is closeto the data reported in [6, 7] where thecoefficients of transition from SSP to PM10

values are reported for a number of Europeancities. For them, the concentration ratio PM10/SSP varies within 0.5�0.7.

On the basis of the data on the coefficientof transition from SSP to PM10 equal to 0.7 (theworst conditions), a number of observations ofthe mass concentration of aerosol near the hos-pital No. 34 was transferred to the series ofPM10 concentrations. Then the quality of at-mospheric air in Novosibirsk near HospitalNo. 34 was assessed using the standards ofWHO (days with the concentrations ≥50 µg/m3

were chosen). In parallel, estimation of air qual-ity in relation to pollution with suspended mat-ter was carried out for data from stations Nos.19 and 25 with respect to MPC24 = 150 µ/m3.This analysis showed that the existing evalua-tions of the atmospheric air quality at the sta-tions of Rosgidromet reveal much more casesof air pollution than the method based on theuse of PM10 (Fig. 5).

A series of observations of suspendedmatter during the period under considerationgave excess over the MPC24 in 185 cases atstation No. 19 and 150 cases at station No. 25.As a result of the observations of the massaerosol concentrations transferred into PM10,only 135 cases of the excess over the standardof atmospheric air quality for dust wererevealed. Higher concentrations (>2MPC) arealmost not fixed by the evaluation basis ofWHO, while using the standard approach of

EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR IN NOVOSIBIRSK 369

Fig. 5. Evaluation of atmospheric air quality in Novosibirskwith respect to solid suspended matter according to PM10

standards (Hospital No. 34) and MPC24 (stations Nos. 19and 25): 1 � >1MPC, 2 � >2MPC.

Rosgidromet they were revealed in 60 cases atstation No. 19 and in 37 cases at station No. 25.

CONCLUSION

Investigations confirm the conclusions of theauthors of [6] that the transition to theprocedure of dust observation according toWHO standards will not change our notions ofair pollution with dust but will requiresubstantial material expenses for the creationof additional network of measurements ofPM10 concentrations. This problem appearsdifficultly implementable during the period ofeconomic difficulties. However, in future the

approaches to air quality evaluation on the basisof solid suspended matter content should beunified in all WHO member countries.

Attention to PM10 is connected with the haz-ardous action of aerosol of this size fraction onhuman health, which is confirmed by numer-ous results of epidemiological and toxicologicalstudies. Evaluations over 25 countries of theEuropean Community showed that the action ofthe air containing PM10 causes a decrease in life-time by 8.6 months for the population [8].

REFERENCES

1 Monitoring Ambient Air Quality for Health ImpactAssessment. WHO Regional Publications, EuropeanSeries, No. 85, Copenhagen, 1999.

2 Rukovodstvo po Kontrolyu Zagryazneniya Atmosfery,RD 52.04.186�89, Moscow, 1992, pp.181�183.

3 Ezhegodnik Sostoyaniya Zagryazneniya AtmosfernogoVozdukha v Gorodakh i Promyshlennykh Tsentrakh,Raspolozhennykh na Territorii Deyatelnosti Zapadno-Sibirskogo Mezhregionalnogo Territorialnogo Uprav-leniya po Gidrometeorologii i Monitoringu Okruzhay-ushchey Sredy za 2005�2008 gg., Novosibirsk, 2006�2009.

4 Selegey T. S., Formirovaniye Urovnya ZagryazneniyaAtmosfernogo Vozdukha v Gorodakh Sibiri, Nauka,Novosibirsk, 2005.

5 Perechen� i Kody Veshchestv, ZagryaznyayushchikhAtmosferny Vozdukh, Integral, St. Petersburg, 2005.

6 Bezuglaya E. Yu., Smirnova I. V., Vozdukh Gorodov iYego Izmeneniya, TsNIT �Asterion�, St. Petersburg, 2008.

7 Kachestvo Atmosfernogo Vozdukha v KrupneyshikhGorodakh Sibiri za Desyat� Let, 1998�2007gg. (Anal.Review), TsNIT �Asterion�, St. Petersburg, 2009.

8 Tsyro S. G., Meteorol. and Gidrol., 2 (2008)34.