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Title: Green Ocean Amazon 2014/15 High-Volume Filter Sampling: Atmospheric Particulate Matter of an Amazon Tropical City and its Relationship to Population Health Field Campaign Report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1302244· OSTI ID:1302244

Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, is developing very rapidly. Its pollution plume contains aerosols from fossil fuel combustion mainly due to vehicular emission, industrial activity, and a thermal power plant. Soil resuspension is probably a secondary source of atmospheric particles. The plume transports from Manaus to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility ARM site at Manacapuru urban pollutants as well as pollutants from pottery factories along the route of the plume. Considering the effects of particulate matter on health, atmospheric particulate matter was evaluated at this site as part of the ARM Facility’s Green Ocean Amazon 2014/15 (GoAmazon 2014/15) field campaign. Aerosol or particulate matter (PM) is typically defined by size, with the smaller particles having more health impact. Total suspended particulate (TSP) are particles smaller than 100 μm; particles smaller than 2.5 μm are called PM2.5. In this work, the PM2.5 levels were obtained from March to December of 2015, totaling 34 samples and TSP levels from October to December of 2015, totaling 17 samples. Sampling was conducted with PM2.5 and TSP high-volume samplers using quartz filters (Figure 1). Filters were stored during 24 hours in a room with temperature (21,1ºC) and humidity (44,3 %) control, in order to do gravimetric analyses by weighing before and after sampling. This procedure followed the recommendations of the Brazilian Association for Technical Standards local norm (NBR 9547:1997). Mass concentrations of particulate matter were obtained from the ratio between the weighted sample and the volume of air collected. Defining a relationship between particulate matter (PM2.5 and TSP) and respiratory diseases of the local population is an important goal of this project, since no information exists on that topic.

Research Organization:
DOE Office of Science Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Contributing Organization:
Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil; University of the State of Amazonas, Brazil; Central Office of the Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia; Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-7601830
OSTI ID:
1302244
Report Number(s):
DOE/SC-ARM-16-045
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English