Source apportionment studies on particulate matter (PM and PM) in ambient air of urban Mangalore, India.

Particulate matter (PM and PM) samples were collected from six sites in urban Mangalore and the mass concentrations for PM and PM were measured using gravimetric technique. The measurements were found to exceed the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) limits, with the highest concentration of 231.5 μg/m for PM particles at Town hall and 120.3 μg/m for PM particles at KMC Attavar. The elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrophotometer (ICPOES) revealed twelve different elements (As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Sr and Zn) for PM particles and nine different elements (Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn) for PM particles. Similarly, ionic composition of these samples measured by ion chromatography (IC) divulged nine different ions (F, Cl, NO, PO, SO, Na, K, Mg and Ca) for PM particles and ten different ions (F, Cl, NO, PO, SO, Na, NH, K, Mg and Ca) for PM particles. The source apportionment study of PM and PM for urban Mangalore in accordance with these six sample sites using chemical mass balance model (CMBv8.2) revealed nine and twelve predominant contributors for both PM and PM, respectively. The highest contributor of PM was found to be paved road dust followed by diesel and gasoline vehicle emissions. Correspondingly, PM was found to be contributed mainly from two-wheeler vehicle emissions followed by four-wheeler and heavy vehicle emissions (diesel vehicles). The current study depicts that the PM and PM in ambient air of Mangalore region has 70% of its contribution from vehicular emissions (both exhaust and non-exhaust).