Preliminary Study on Characteristics of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in a Mega-city

Air pollutants are an important environmental concern particularly for the mega-city which has various pollutant sources. As a preliminary study, we investigated the levels of criteria air pollutants (SO2, CO, NO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Busan, Korea during April~November 2010. Among the 16 US-EPA priority PAHs, 13 PAHs excluding naphthalene, acenaphthylene, and acenaphthene were quantified. The levels of gaseous and particulate PAHs were 1.58~9.52 ng/m3 (mean: 4.77 ng/m3) and 0.98~5.21 ng/m3 (mean: 2.84 ng/m3), respectively. PAHs were positively correlated with SO2, NO2, and PM2.5, suggesting that they had common emission sources. According to a pollution rose diagram, PAHs and criteria air pollutants seemed to be influenced by major wind directions, but this effect was not so significant due to geographical characteristics. On the basis of this study, the spatial distribution of PAHs can be simulated with those of criteria air pollutants.clos