Multielement Analyses of Airborne Particulates over Various Areas in Japan (II)

Abstract

Results of multielement analyses of airborne particulate samples collected at various residential areas in Japan were examined from the view point of characterizing the elemental air pollution. The following are presented in this article (Report II).
(1) Correlation coefficients between concentrations of various pairs of elements were calculated. There were some groups of elements, whose concentrations showed strong correlation with one another.(For instance, Al, Sc, Ti, La, Sm, Th; K, Ca, Fe, Rb, Cs; Co, Ni, Zn, Cd, Pb)
(2) Enrichment factors defined by the following equation were calculated for various elements.
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where C (A) means concentration of element A and the elemental composition of average soil given by Bowen is adopted as standard. Our average values of (EF) _B agree with those previously reported by Harwell team. This suggests the chemical uniformity on global scale of airborne particulate material.
(3) Enrichment factor defined by the following equation was introduced.
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where the elemental composition of average aerosol is adopted as standard.(EF) _g is considered to be more convenient for grasping the features of elemental composition of aerosol.
(4) Enrichment factor is a convenient measure for grasping the features of elemental composition of environmental material and has been often used in many environmental studies. But, it should be noted that enrichment factor can not be always a useful measure for estimating thedegree of elemental pollution.