Indoor-outdoor relationships of airborne nanoparticles, BC and VOCs at rural and urban preschools.

Health risks caused by exposure to black carbon (BC) and nanoparticles (NP) are well studied, although no standard currently exists for them worldwide. Exposure to children may lead to serious health effects due to their increased vulnerability and longer time spend inside the classrooms, making it important to assess the factors that affect air quality in preschools. Thus, this work aims to evaluate indoor-outdoor (I/O) relationships of NPs in the 10-420 nm range, BC and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at rural and urban preschools (aged 3-5 years) between May 2016 and July 2017.

Monthly-Term Associations Between Air Pollutants and Respiratory Morbidity in South Brazil 2013-2016: A Multi-City, Time-Series Analysis.

Most air pollution research conducted in Brazil has focused on assessing the daily-term effects of pollutants, but little is known about the health effects of air pollutants at an intermediate time term. The objective of this study was to determine the monthly-term association between air pollution and respiratory morbidity in five cities in South Brazil. An ecological time-series study was performed using the municipality as the unit of observation in five cities in South Brazil (Gravataí, Triunfo, Esteio, Canoas, and Charqueadas) between 2013 and 2016.

FTIR analysis and evaluation of carcinogenic and mutagenic risks of nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in PM1.0.

Nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NPAHs) represent a group of organic compounds of significant interest due to their presence in airborne particulates of urban centers, wide distribution in the environment, and mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. These compounds, associated with atmospheric particles of size < 1 μm, have been reported as a major risk to human health. This study aims at identifying the spectral features of NPAHs (1-nitropyrene, 2-nitrofluorene, and 6-nitrochrysene) in emissivity and transmittance spectra of samples of particulate matter < 1 μm (PM1.

Contribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) sources to the urban environment: A comparison of receptor models.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of the main emission sources of PAHs associated with PM2.5, in an urban area of the Rio Grande do Sul state. Source apportionment was conducted using both the US EPA Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model and the Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) model.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons study in atmospheric fine and coarse particles using diagnostic ratios and receptor model in urban/industrial region.

Atmospheric fine and coarse particles were collected in Teflon filters in three cities of the region of the Lower Sinos River Basin of Rio Grande do Sul in the year 2010. The filters were Soxhlet extracted, and 14 priority PAHs were analyzed using a gas chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer (GC/MS). The principal emission sources of these compounds were assessed by using diagnostic ratios and receptor model: positive matrix factorization (PMF 3.

DNA-damage effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from urban area, evaluated in lung fibroblast cultures.

This study was designed to biomonitor the effect of PAH extracts from urban areas on the DNA of lung cell cultures. The analyses of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were performed in atmospheric PM(2.5) and PM(10) collected at three sampling sites with heavy traffic located in the Metropolitan Area of Porto Alegre (MAPA) (Brazil).

Characterization of wet precipitation by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The purpose of this study is to assess the composition of wet precipitation in three sites of the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre. Besides the variables usually considered, such as pH, conductivity, major ions (Cl(-), NO(3)(-), F(-), SO(4)(2-), Na(+), K(+), Mg(2+), NH(4)(+) and Ca(2+)) and metallic elements (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn and Ni), the suspended matter was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), with energy dispersive system (EDS), for better identification of possible anthropogenic material in this wet precipitation. Results showed an alkaline pH in the samples analyzed and higher concentrations for Na(+), Cl(-) and SO(4)(2-).