Selected organic compounds in fine particulatematter at the regional background, urban background and urbantraffic points in Silesia (Poland)

Suspended particles with aerodynamic diameters not greater than 2.5 μm (PM_2.5) were sampled at the urban background, regional background and urban traffic points in southern Poland. In total, 120 samples were collected between 2^nd August 2009 and 27^th December 2010. 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organic carbon (OC) were determined in each sample. The samples were collected with a high volume sampler (Digitel). Afterwards, they were chemically analysed with a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (Perkin Elmer Clarus 500) and thermo-optical carbon analyser (Sunset Laboratory Inc.).Over the whole measurement period, the mean concentrations of the sum of 16 PM_2.5-bound PAHs and particular compounds within this group were very high at each measurement point. Particularly high values were observed for the heating season, in which the concentrations of the PAH sum and BaP exceeded 56 and 7 ng/m³ (regional background), 343 and 25 ng/m³ (urban background), and 166 and 14 ng/m³ (urban traffic), respectively. It was showed that the emission related to heat production, particularly municipal emission (coal combustion in home furnaces in cities and coal and wood combustion in the countryside) were the main sources of the air pollution with PAHs in Silesia.Additionally, the traffic emission had probablya slight influence on the ambient concentrations of the PM_2.5-bound PAHs.