Environmental & Analytical Toxicology

Mapping of Airborne Particulate Matter Collected Using Two Sensors along US-Mexico Border

Abstract

Juan P. Flores-Márgez *,Manoj K. Shukla ,Sanjit Deb

Particulate matter (PM) emissions from various sources can have significant effect on human health and environmental quality especially in the Chihuahuan Desert region along US-Mexico border. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of road dust texture and vehicular speed on airborne PM concentrations from different unpaved rural roads using two sampling techniques (DustTrakR, and Sticky-tape). The surface soil textures of unpaved roads varied from silty clay to loam with less than 4% soil moisture content at the time of PM measurement. Sticky tape method in seven experiment sites showed that PM ranged from 0.529 to 3.054 mg m-3, and DustTrakR measurements showed that PM2.5 concentration ranged from 1.11 to 37.1 mg m-3 at 1 m height. An exponential relationship was obtained between PM2.5 by DustTrakR and vehicle speeds with an average slope of -1.619 mg m-3s-1. The concentration of PM measured with the Sticky-tape decreased with increasing height of measurement. Both PM measurement techniques provided a good approximation of PM emissions at different vehicles speeds, unpaved roads and position of the instrument above ground level for a variety of unpaved roads. The low cost sticky tape method has the potential to further determine and abiotic (elemental composition) and biotic (fungus) particles in airborne PM.