[Measurements of iron, lead, arsenic and selenium concentration in respirable and nonrespirable fractions of Berlin urban aerosols].

In the scope of air quality determinations in the city of Berlin, size fractioned immission concentrations of the heavy metals iron, lead and cadmium and the metalloids arsenic and selenium in suspended particulate matter in air were determined at a highly polluted urban site. The samples were gathered from Juli until December 1981 with a 6-stage-plus-backup high-volume cascade impactor, extracted with 33% HNO3 and analyzed with atomic absorption photometry (AAS) (flame: iron and lead, hydride system: arsenic and selenium) and inductively coupled plasm spectroscopy (ICP) (cadmium). The results show, that - the applied sampling and analyzing procedure proved to be suitable, - the immission concentrations of suspended particulate matter less than 10 micron in Berlin are comparatively high, with values up to 295 ng/m3, - the immission concentrations of the selected trace elements in suspended particulate matter less than 10 micron in Berlin are comparatively low for an industrialized area like this city (Fe: 1280 ng/m3, Pb: 325 ng/m3, Cd: 3.74 ng/m3, As: 11.9 ng/m3, Se: 1.6 ng/m3), but increase markedly during periods of air stagnation as they are quite common in the Berlin winter season (Fe: 2970 ng/m3, Pb: 859 ng/m3, Cd: 8.26 ng/m3, As: 67.3 ng/m3, Se: 6.68 ng/m3), - lead, cadmium, arsenic and selenium of main environmental hygienic interest were concentrated on particles smaller than 2 micron.