Atmospheric methanethiol emitted from a pulp and paper plant on the shore of Lake Baikal

On-site measurement of methanethiol (CH3SH) was performed for three years on ships and cars near a pulp and paper plant standing on the shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, to investigate the behavior and impact of atmospheric CH3SH emitted from a point source. Despite its strong odor, there are few reports on atmospheric CH3SH, while many investigations have been carried out on dimethyl sulfide (DMS). In this work, CH3SH and DMS were measured every 15 min by a recently developed automated instrument based on single column trapping/separation and chemiluminescence measurement. Hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and ozone were also measured simultaneously by individual instruments. Of these sulfur compounds, CH3SH was dominant and its concentration sometimes reached several tens of ppbv. The concentration of CH3SH was high at night, because of the lack of photodecomposition and local winds from the mountain to the lake. Such time variation was marked in the summer. The CH3SH level decreased significantly downwind, while decreases in concentrations of other compounds such as DMS and SO2 were relatively small. From these temporal and spatial variations, the behavior of CH3SH is described in this paper. The impact of CH3SH near the Siberian big sources is discussed with the presented data.