| Title: | Improving Insights on Air Pollutant Mixtures and Their Origins by Enhancing Local Monitoring in an Area of Intensive Resource Development |
| Author(s): | Wren SN; Mihele CM; Lu G; Jiang Z; Wen D; Hayden K; Mittermeier RL; Staebler RM; Cober SG; Brook JR; |
| Address: | "Air Quality Processes Research Section, Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T4, Canada. Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, 223 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R4, Canada" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1520-5851 (Electronic) 0013-936X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "An 'event-based' approach to characterize complex air pollutant mixtures was applied in the Oil Sands region of northern Alberta, Canada. This approach was developed to better-inform source characterization and attribution of the air pollution in the Indigenous community of Fort McKay, within the context of the lived experience of residents. Principal component analysis was used to identify the characteristics of primary pollutant mixtures, which were related to hydrocarbon emissions, fossil fuel combustion, dust, and oxidized and reduced sulfur compounds. Concentration distributions of indicator compounds were used to isolate sustained air pollution 'events'. Diesel-powered vehicles operating in the mines were found to be an important source during NO(x) events. Industry-specific volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles were used in a chemical mass balance model for source apportionment, which revealed that nearby oil sands operations contribute to 86% of the total mass of nine VOC species (2-methylpentane, hexane, heptane, octane, benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene, o-xylene, and ethylbenzene) during VOC events. Analyses of the frequency distribution of air pollution events indicate that Fort McKay is regularly impacted by multiple mixtures simultaneously, underscoring the limitations of an exceedance-based approach relying on a small number of air quality standards as the only tool to assess risk" |
| Keywords: | *Air Pollutants/analysis *Air Pollution/analysis Alberta Environmental Monitoring Oil and Gas Fields *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis air quality chemical mass balance indigenous communities multipollutant mixtures oil and gas development volatile org; |
| Notes: | "MedlineWren, Sumi N Mihele, Cris M Lu, Gang Jiang, Zhimei Wen, Deyong Hayden, Katherine Mittermeier, Richard L Staebler, Ralf M Cober, Stewart G Brook, Jeffrey R eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2020/11/14 Environ Sci Technol. 2020 Dec 1; 54(23):14936-14945. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c06055. Epub 2020 Nov 13" |
