Journal article
Multi-season, multi-year concentrations and correlations amongst the BTEX group of VOCs in an urbanized industrial city
Lindsay Miller, Xiaohong Xu, Alice Grgicak-Mannion, Jeffrey Brook, Amanda Wheeler
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT | PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD | Published : 2012
Abstract
An air quality monitoring study focusing on spatial patterns was carried out in the urban industrial city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada (42.267°N, 82.95°W). This study took place over a three-year period (2004-2006), during all four seasons for a total of 12 two-week sampling periods (each with approximately 50 sites) at 162 sites across the city. Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, (m + p)-xylene, and o-xylene (BTEX) were measured using 3M #3500 Organic Vapor Samples (Guillevan, Montreal). Results from this investigation indicate that significant variability is present temporally (seasonally and annually) and spatially. The three-year mean concentrations in μg m -3 were: benzene (0.76), toluene (..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the study participants for allowing access to their yards for locating the sampling equipment. James Brown at Enwin Utilities in Windsor for permission to place samplers on light poles, Health Canada researchers, Hongyu You, Ryan Kulka, Keith Van Ryswyk, Corrine Stocco, Angelos Anastassopoulos, and University of Windsor students for field work, Dr. Markey Johnson and Gary Mallach from Health Canada for conducting the internal review, and Marsha Pereira at University of Windsor for assistance. The Canadian National Air Pollutant Surveillance program (NAPS) of Environment Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment are also acknowledged for provision of the Windsor West site canister VOC measurements and for access to the sites, respectively. Funding was provided by the Border Air Quality Strategy (BAQS) through Health Canada and by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).