Ambient air metallic elements (Mn, Fe, Zn, Cr, Cu, and Pb) pollutants sources study at a rural resident area near Taichung Thermal Power Plant and Industrial Park: 6-month observations

  • Guor-Cheng Fang
  • Yuan-Jie Zhuang
  • Yu-Chen Kuo
  • Meng-Hsien Cho
Original Article
First Online:
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Accepted:

Abstract

The Longjing area is located at the Taichung, in central Taiwan. And it also near the Taichung Thermal Power Plant (TTPP) and Taichung Harbor Kwan-Lien Park (THKLP). Thus, this study measured the ambient air particulates and metallic elements concentrations using total suspended particulates (TSP) at Long Cyuan Elementary School (LCYES), Lung Ching Elementary School (LCHES), and Long Shan Primary School (LSPS) sampling sites at Longjing area. Because of the unique characteristic locations, therefore, this study focused on monitor ambient air particles and metallic element [Hg(p) Mn, Fe, Zn, Cr, Cu, and Pb] concentrations, particles and metallic element dry deposition around the Longjing area. In addition, method of back trajectory analysis was used to find the pollutants parcels in this study. Moreover, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method was also applied in the identifying the possible sources of the ambient air pollutants at Longjing area. The results indicated that the LCYES has the lowest pollutants concentrations when compared with LCHES and LSPS sampling sites. The major pollutants sources were come from China especially in January. These pollutants will come to Taiwan along with dust storm accompaning exhausted gas from TTPP and THKLP. And the highest particulates bound mercury were in January. Moreover, PCA results also show that the factor loading values >0.7 frequency for metallic elements Mn, Fe, Zn and Hg(p) were greater than the other metallic elements. Thus, we concluded that the major pollutants were mainly from vehicles emissions, transport emissions and steel factory at THKLP and TTPP sampling site. Potential significant health impacts and concern at the Longjing sampling site are needed for this study.

Keywords

Total suspended particulate Dry deposition plate PCA Metallic element HYSPLIT 

Abbreviation

TSP

Total suspended particulate

DDP

Dry deposition plate

HYSPLIT

Hybrid single-particle Lagrangian integrated trajectory

AGL

Above ground level

PCA

Principal component analysis

LSPS

Long Shan Primary School

LCHES

Lung Ching Elementary School

LCYES

Long Cyuan Elementary School

TTPP

Taichung Thermal Power Plant

THKLP

Kwan-Lien Park

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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Science Council of the ROC (Taiwan) for financial support under Project No. 103-2221-E-241-004-MY3.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Guor-Cheng Fang
    • 1
  • Yuan-Jie Zhuang
    • 2
  • Yu-Chen Kuo
    • 2
  • Meng-Hsien Cho
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Safety, Health, and Environmental EngineeringHungkuang UniversityTaichungTaiwan, ROC
  2. 2.Department of BiotechnologyNational Formosa UniversityYunlinTaiwan, ROC

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