Department of Environmental Medicine, Medical Faculty University of Rijeka, Braće Branchetta 20/1, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia.
Department of Environmental Health, Teaching Institute of Public Health of the Primorsko-Goranska County, Krešimirova 52a, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia.
Environ Monit Assess. 2023 Nov 10;195(12):1451. doi: 10.1007/s10661-023-12047-2.
Emissions of odorous compounds are major contributors to public opposition when siting waste management facilities. Thus, it is essential to understand how to minimise the concentration of odour-causing chemicals in ambient air surrounding such facilities. Although the concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere is a function of meteorology, there is limited data on the atmospheric parameters that drive ambient air concentrations of odour-causing substances in settlements near waste management facilities. Here, we analysed how temperature, wind direction, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and humidity impact the concentrations of hydrogen sulphide (HS) in the ambient air, a potentially toxic chemical and a chief contributor to noxious odours. The relative contribution of each variable was assessed using multivariate statistical analysis applied to an extensive data set of over 7,000 data points collected during 2021. Our results show that all tested atmospheric parameters significantly affected HS concentrations in ambient air. Wind direction had the greatest impact on HS concentrations, followed by temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and wind speed. Specifically, the concentration of HS was positively correlated with humidity and atmospheric pressure and had a U-shaped correlation with temperature. Atmospheric variables were able to explain 15% of variation in HS concentrations (R = 15%), indicating the presence of other factors affecting HS ambient air concentrations. Our study shows that proper consideration of atmospheric parameters, especially wind direction and temperatures, is of uttermost importance when siting waste management facilities. The conclusions are broadly applicable to odorous compounds near waste management facilities, so adverse effects to human health and the environment can be minimised.
排放的恶臭化合物是废物管理设施选址时公众反对的主要原因。因此，了解如何最大限度地减少这些设施周围环境空气中引起异味的化学物质的浓度是至关重要的。尽管大气污染物的浓度是气象条件的函数，但关于驱动废物管理设施附近定居点环境空气中引起异味物质浓度的大气参数的数据有限。在这里，我们分析了温度、风向、风速、大气压和湿度如何影响环境空气中硫化氢（HS）的浓度，HS 是一种潜在的有毒化学物质，也是恶臭的主要贡献者。使用多元统计分析评估了每个变量的相对贡献，该分析应用于 2021 年收集的超过 7000 个数据点的大量数据集。我们的结果表明，所有测试的大气参数都显著影响了环境空气中的 HS 浓度。风向对 HS 浓度的影响最大，其次是温度、湿度、大气压和风速。具体而言，HS 浓度与湿度和大气压呈正相关，与温度呈 U 型相关。大气变量能够解释 HS 浓度变化的 15%（R=15%），表明存在其他影响 HS 环境空气浓度的因素。我们的研究表明，在选址废物管理设施时，充分考虑大气参数（特别是风向和温度）至关重要。该结论广泛适用于废物管理设施附近的恶臭化合物，从而可以最小化对人类健康和环境的不利影响。
