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Abstract
Atmospheric aerosols were collected during the winter in Bethlehem, South Africa. The particulate mass concentrations, ambient carbon mass concentrations, and chemical composition of various particulate fractions showed that the area is highly polluted. The fine particle mass concentrations peaked at 1000 µg/m3 for PM2.5. Ambient carbon mass concentrations ranged from 20 to 40 µg/m3. Single particle analysis confirmed that the fine particle fraction was dominated by organic particles. The topographical conditions, causing a low inversion, together with the high amounts of emissions from biomass burning, result in unacceptable levels of air pollution and pose a considerable health threat to the population.
Acknowledgments
This paper is part of a Special Issue of Analytical Letters focusing on papers presented at the 10th International Symposium on Kinetics in Analytical Chemistry (KAC-10).
This work was supported by the Flemish government through the bilateral Project No.99/57. The staff of the Weather Station in the Bethlehem Airport is gratefully acknowledged for the assistance and help during our sampling campaign and for providing meteorological data. Mr. Nico Bleux from Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) is acknowledged for the providing of supporting data. Anna Worobiec is supported as the post-doctoral researcher by FWO (Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, Belgium).