Atmospheric emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sampling areas of the German environmental specimen bank. Method for the precise measurement of gaseous and particle-associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the sub-nanogram range using de

The objective of this study was to determine the impact by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in areas in which samples are regularly taken by the German Environmental Specimen Bank (GESB). A filter combination consisting of a glass fibre and a PU foam filter has been used to completely collect atmospheric pollutants allowing a quantitative extraction of the PAHs collected and a simple cleanup. The mass spectrometric evaluation using deuterated standards resulted in standard deviations of 1–6% for various PAHs detected by this method (extraction + cleanup + MS-SIM) applied to the sub-nanogram range. The repeatability of the method (sampling + analysis) has been checked by taking 5 different samples with 5 different samplers at the same location. The sampling period was 6 h and resulted in variation coefficients of 2.1–10.2%. Real samples were taken in 3 different areas more than 400 km distant from each other (Halle/Leipzig, N=7; Saarland, N=14, Großhansdorf, N=30). Almost identical profiles of the volatile PAHs were recorded in all 3 areas suggesting a long-distance intermix of the atmosphere. However, different profiles of particle-bound PAHs were found in different sampling areas indicating that they are suitable to characterise local emission rates and possibly also emission sources.