[Determination of trace elements Be, Cd, as and Pb in air of residential areas by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry coupled with ultrasonic leaching].

In the present paper, the method for determining the trace elements Be, Cd, As and Pb in air of residential areas by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry was established. Ultrasonic leaching procedures were applied to extract the trace elements from the filter membrane of the atmospheric particulates. The operating condition of the instrument was optimized. 72Ge, 115s In and 204Tl were chosen as the internal elements and the effect of matrix, interface and fluctuation of instrument was overcome effectively. Satisfactory linearity of working curves of four elements was obtained, giving all the correlation coefficients over 0.9995, and the detection limit of the method was between 0.006 and 0.045 ng x m(-3). The mean values of National Standard Reference Material GBW(E)080212 were in agreement with the certified values. The sampling filters membranes, divided into four equal parts and with added standard solution with different concentions were analyzed, and the recovery rate of samples were in the range of 91.6%-109.7% with the related standard deviation between 0.7% and 4.8%. The obtained results showed that the method of determining the trace elements Be, Cd, As and Pb in air of residential areas by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry proved to be simple, accurate, sophisticated and stable.

[Quantified study on human health impact caused by coal-burning air pollution in China].

To develop the mathematics model of exposure to coal-burning pollution; To confirm the exposure level of coal-burning pollutants by source analysis of atmospheric particulates; To establish the quantilification technology and methods of human health impact. Combinating the methods of epidemiology, environmental chemistry and contaminated aerography. We obtained the data of human historical expose to PM10, PM2.5, and Bap etc. that can't be obtained from the general inspect and the contribution rate of coal-burning as well as the status of coal-burning air pollutants. Confirming the degree of human health impact due to coal-burning pollutants, which included: The occurrence risk of respiratory symptoms and COPD of adults in heavily polluted area was 1.7 and 1.5 times of that of relatively clean area respectively; FVC and FEF50 of pupils decreased 194 ml and 172 ml respectively with the increasing of every unit of the Ln(PM10). FVC and FEF50 of pupils decreased 69 ml and 119 ml respectively with the increase of every unit of the Ln(SO2). Both the indices of non-specific and humoral immunity of pupils in heavily and medium polluted areas were worse than those in relatively clean area.

[Study on distribution of endemic arsenism in China].

Drinking water and burning coal endemic arsenism as a severe disease is confirmed by National Ministry of Health in China in 1992. It is not uniform survey of the disease for the whole country from its report in 1980 in xijiang. Therefore National Ministry of Scientific and Technology in China supports to study on distribution of endemic arsenism in 21 provinces in China, so that it can know the basic distribution of endemic arsenism in China, and the data results will be a guide for the disease prevention and control. The project used environmental epidemiology study including retrospective epidemiology, present situation survey of the disease in severe areas and sampling investigation in unknown areas, collecting data of exposure population and arsenism cases. At the same time, the data of arsenic level in environment were collected, and environment samples were analyzed by standard chemical method. The both data were statistical analysis by access database and SAS procedure in computer. Through the study, it achieves the expected aim that grasps spreading distribution of drinking water arsenism and burning coal arsenism, including arsenic level in water, coal, food and air, as well as patient's condition of the disease at macroscopic. Drinking water endemic arsenism distributed in 8 provinces, 40 counties, affecting 2,343,238 peoples, among 522566 peoples expositing to the drinking water arsenic higher than 0.05 mg/L, and 7821 arsenism patients were diagnosed. Burning coal endemic arsenism spreads in 2 provinces, 8 counties, affecting 333905 peoples, 48438 peoples exposing to high arsenic of burning coal pollution, and 2402 peoples causing chronic arsenic poising by coal burning. Drinking water endemic arsenism: Nemeng, Shanxi is a severe drinking water endemic region also. Wusu city in Xinjiang is old arsenism area, which reformed drinking water to decrease arsenic, so chronic arsenic poisoning condition decreasing. Reforming drinking water measures to decreees arsenic were performed in some areas of Neimeng and Shanxi. On other hand, 1 county of Jilin and 1 county of Ningxia as drinking water arsenism areas were affirmed. 11 counties of Shanyi, 1 Banner of Nemeng, 1 city of Jilin, 1 county of Qinhai and 1 counties of Anhui province were discovered for new drinking water arsenism areas in this survey. Shunyi district of Beijing has high arsenic in drinking water. Otherwise, high arsenic content in drinking water in some areas decreased to lower than 0.05 mg/L, which including some villages of Liaoning province, Tongxing city of Zhejiang province, and Tianzhu village of Shunyi district in Beijing. Blackfoot disease related to high arsenic in drinking water in Taiwan province does not include in this study. Burning coal endemic arsenism: Guizhou province has a typical burning coal arsenism areas in China and world. Although to reform stove and decreasing arsenic pollution, but the chronic arsenic poisoning from domestic coal combustion exists, because it located high seal level and poor areas. Some new burning coal arsenism areas in Shanxi province were found, which produced air pollution and food pollution of arsenic from domestic coal combustion for cooking and heating. The paper summarizes the arsenic distribution levels in drinking water and in environment of burning coal. At the same time, preventive and control measures of endemic arsenism were provided.

Patterns of household concentrations of multiple indoor air pollutants in China.

Most previous studies on indoor air pollution from household use of solid fuels have used either indirect proxies for human exposure or measurements of individual pollutants at a single point, as indicators of (exposure to) the mixture of pollutants in solid fuel smoke. A heterogeneous relationship among pollutant-location pairs should be expected because specific fuel-stove technology and combustion and dispersion conditions such as temperature, moisture, and air flow are likely to affect the emissions and dispersion of the various pollutants differently. We report on a study for monitoring multiple pollutants--including respirable particles (RPM), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, fluoride, and arsenic--at four points inside homes that used coal and/or biomass fuels in Guizhou and Shaanxi provinces of China. All pollutants exhibited large variability in emissions and spatial dispersion within and between provinces and were generally poorly correlated. RPM, followed by SO2, was generally higher than common health-based guidelines/standards and provided sufficient resolution for assessing variations within and between households in both provinces. Indoor heating played an important role in the level and spatial patterns of pollution inside homes, possibly to an extent more important than cooking. The findings indicate the need for monitoring of RPM and selected other pollutants in longer-term health studies, with focus on both cooking and living/sleeping areas.

Geographical, spatial, and temporal distributions of multiple indoor air pollutants in four Chinese provinces.

Exposure to indoor air pollution from household energy use depends on fuel, stove, housing characteristics, and stove use behavior. We monitored three important indoor air pollutants-respirable particles (RPM), carbon monoxide (CO), and sulfur dioxide (SO2)-for a total of 457 household-days in four poor provinces in China (Gansu, 129 household-days; Guizhou, 127 household-days; Inner Mongolia, 65 household-days; and Shaanxi, 136 household-days), in two time intervals during the heating season to investigate spatial and temporal patterns of pollution. The two provinces where biomass is the primary fuel (Inner Mongolia and Gansu) had the highest RPM concentrations (719 microg/m3 in the single cooking/living/bedroom in Inner Mongolia in December and 351-661 microg/m3 in different rooms and months in Gansu); lower RPM concentration were observed in the primarily coal-burning provinces of Guizhou and Shaanxi (202-352 microg/m3 and 187-361 microg/m3 in different rooms and months in Guizhou and Shaanxi, respectively). Inner Mongolia and Gansu also had higher CO concentrations (7.4 ppm in the single cooking/living/bedroom in Inner Mongolia in December and 4.8-11.3 ppm in different rooms and months in Gansu). Among the two primarily coal-burning provinces, Guizhou had lower concentrations of CO than Shaanxi (1.2-1.8 ppm in Guizhou vs 2.0-13.3 ppm in different rooms and months in Shaanxi). In the two coal-burning provinces, SO2 concentrations were substantially higher in Shaanxi than in Guizhou. Relative concentrations in different rooms and provinces indicate that in the northern provinces heating is an important source of exposure to indoor pollutants from energy use. Day-to-day variability of concentrations within individual households, although substantial, was smaller than variation across households. The implications of the findings for designing environmental health interventions in each province are discussed.