Al Hallak Mohammad, Kurdieh Abdul Aziz, Yassine Amira, El Hage Rachel, Saliba Najat
Department of Chemistry, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 31;19(12):e0313341. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313341. eCollection 2024.
Lebanon, plagued by political and economic crises, experienced a government collapse in early 2020, leading to an electrical nationwide blackout by 2023. Diesel generators were used to compensate for the absence of power production from the national provider, Electricité du Liban (EDL). To investigate the effect of the crisis on the levels of 16 EPA particle bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PPAHs), an annual comparative analysis of three locations within Beirut started in 2022 and ended in 2023. The locations are: American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut Central District (BCD) and Nursing School Makassed University (NSMU). Sampling took place and the PPAHs samples were extracted, quantified using Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and source apportioned using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). Particulate Matter 2.5μm (PM2.5) mean levels at AUB, BCD and NSMU, which was found to be 14.3 μg/m3, 18.3 μg/m3 and 22.6 μg/m3 respectively, beside the high annual PM2.5 mean level (17.19 μg/m3) exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) standard levels. The factors identified in the three sites are diesel, incineration, and gasoline emissions. The dominant factor in three sites was the diesel emissions, specifically from generators, with 56% in BCD, 42% in AUB and 43% in NSMU. The contribution of diesel emission in AUB has increased by 100% since the last study in 2016-2017. Similarly, the excess cancer risk (ESR) in the three sites was above the EPA threshold with an increase of 53% compared to the one calculated previously in AUB. This situation, where law of enforcement is absent, need for international action to curb emissions and for funding agencies to adopt sustainable, "carbon-free" funding strategies to support urban development in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Yet, EDL's failure to fulfill Lebanon's populace electricity requirements infringes upon their electricity entitlements.
黎巴嫩饱受政治和经济危机困扰，2020年初政府垮台，到2023年导致全国范围停电。柴油发电机被用来弥补国家电力供应商黎巴嫩电力公司（EDL）电力生产的缺失。为调查危机对16种环境空气中细颗粒物结合多环芳烃（PPAHs）水平的影响，2022年至2023年在贝鲁特的三个地点开展了年度对比分析。这些地点分别是：贝鲁特美国大学（AUB）、贝鲁特市中心区（BCD）和麦卡塞德大学护理学院（NSMU）。进行了采样，PPAHs样本经过提取，采用气相色谱-质谱联用仪（GC-MS）进行定量分析，并使用正定矩阵因子分解法（PMF）进行源解析。在AUB、BCD和NSMU测得的细颗粒物2.5微米（PM2.5）平均水平分别为14.3微克/立方米、18.3微克/立方米和22.6微克/立方米，此外，年平均PM2.5高水平（17.19微克/立方米）超过了世界卫生组织（WHO）的标准水平。在这三个地点识别出的因素是柴油、焚烧和汽油排放。三个地点的主要因素是柴油排放，特别是来自发电机的排放，在BCD占56%，在AUB占42%，在NSMU占43%。自2016 - 2017年的上次研究以来，AUB中柴油排放的贡献增加了100%。同样，这三个地点的超额癌症风险（ESR）高于美国环境保护局（EPA）阈值，与之前在AUB计算的相比增加了53%。在这种缺乏执法的情况下，需要国际行动来遏制排放，并且需要资助机构采取可持续的“无碳”资助战略来支持低收入和中等收入国家（LMICs）的城市发展。然而，EDL未能满足黎巴嫩民众的电力需求，侵犯了他们的电力权益。
