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Traffic-related magnetic pollution in urban dust from the Xiamen Island, China

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Abstract

Pollution by magnetic particles is a rising environmental issue with possible adverse health effects such as the Alzheimer's disease. Magnetic particles in urban dust originate from traffic-related activities, industrial products and detrital minerals, yet distribution of magnetic particles in cities is poorly known. Here, we measured magnetic properties of surface roadside dust and topsoils by low-frequency magnetic susceptibility (χLF), saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (χARM) and advanced rock-magnetic methods. Results show that χLF, SIRM and χARM of roadside dust are much higher than topsoil values. Roadside dusts had much lower percent frequency-dependent susceptibility of 1.83 ± 0.12% than topsoil of 2.96 ± 0.14%. Findings also demonstrate a minor contribution of fine pedogenic grains to the elevated χLF. The high values of dust χLF, SIRM and χARM are explained by the contribution of local, exogenous magnetite-like materials.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by Gui Da Zhuan Ji He Zi (2021) 14, National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1406603) and Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870483 and 31530008). The manuscript was greatly improved by Dr. Adam Roddy at Yale University. Dan Y is grateful to Dr. Weiguo Zhang at State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, for his help in magnetic measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Germplasm Innovation in Mountainous Region, Collaborative Innovation Center for Mountain Ecology & Agro-Bioengineering, College of Life Sciences, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Dan Yang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Key Laboratory of the Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Dan Yang, Jiajia Wu, Hualong Hong, Jingchun Liu, Chongling Yan & Haoliang Lu

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  1. Dan Yang
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  2. Jiajia Wu
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Correspondence to Chongling Yan.

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Yang, D., Wu, J., Hong, H. et al. Traffic-related magnetic pollution in urban dust from the Xiamen Island, China. Environ Chem Lett 19, 3991–3997 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01270-3

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