From Traditional to Emerging Air Pollutants: Tools and Health Risk Assessment

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality and Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2025 | Viewed by 276

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, Environmental and Food Sciences, University of Molise, Via De Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy
Interests: emerging pollutants; air pollutants; risk assessment; environmental monitoring; innovative analytical methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences (DiAAA), University of Molise, Via de Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy
2. Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research, Division of Rome, c/o Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, 00147 Rome, Italy
Interests: biomass; renewable energy; biofuels; carbon neutrality; energy crops; waste-to-energy; biochemical processes; thermochemical processes; anaerobic digestion; biogas; biomethane; liquefaction; manure; digestate; circular economy; bioenergy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Air quality is a highly relevant topic for the global scientific community. Numerous studies have been published in recent years, but, due to the significant impact of air pollutants on both the environment and living organisms, even at trace and ultra-trace concentrations, there is a strong need for in-depth investigations aimed at developing innovative tools and approaches. For traditional air pollutants, while the implementation of innovative tools has been proposed, the lack of harmonization in methodologies remains a significant challenge, hindering the comparability of the results. The absence of validation for the most innovative approaches, from sampling to chemical analysis, impedes the ability to legislatively define the suitability of methods for detecting trace and ultra-trace contaminants. This validation is crucial for standardizing the results obtained from different approaches across various geographical regions. Meanwhile, for emerging air pollutants, the variability in approaches further complicates the comparison of levels and the accurate assessment of exposure risks to living organisms.

This Special Issue invites contributions describing both traditional and innovative approaches for detecting gaseous and airborne pollutants, including an in-depth comparison with widely used methods, emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses and how they can be standardized to support regulatory and legislative frameworks. Of significant interest are also contributions focusing on the validation of approaches and tools for emerging air contaminants.

Dr. Cristina Di Fiore
Prof. Dr. Pasquale Avino
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • air pollution
  • air quality
  • risk assessment
  • analytical approach
  • emerging air pollutants
  • aerosol
  • gaseous pollutants
  • remote sensing
  • sensors
  • human health

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1503 KiB  
Article
Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Atmospheric Deposition in Malva sylvestris Leaves Using Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)
by Giuseppe Ianiri, Alessandra Fratianni, Pasquale Avino and Gianfranco Panfili
Atmosphere 2024, 15(12), 1402; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15121402 - 22 Nov 2024
Viewed by 62
Abstract
Plant leaves can be used to determine the atmospheric deposition of organic contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), to assess the contamination status of an area. The purpose of this study was to develop an analytical method for the determination of PAHs deriving [...] Read more.
Plant leaves can be used to determine the atmospheric deposition of organic contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), to assess the contamination status of an area. The purpose of this study was to develop an analytical method for the determination of PAHs deriving from atmospheric deposition using Malva sylvestris leaves. Analytes were recovered from the leaves of the plant using cyclohexane as an organic solvent and subsequent sonication. The percentage recoveries (R%) were good (from 65.8 ± 3.2 to 104.2 ± 16.9), together with the instrumental analytical parameters, including correlation coefficients (r) ≥ 0.995 for all PAHs. The instrumental analysis was carried out using GC-MS in total ion current and single ion monitoring at the same time. Real samples taken from urban environments have shown that they are not always the most contaminated. At the Palermo site, leaves were observed to have high amounts of PAHs due to the deposition of dust generated by combustion processes that occurred near the sampling site. Further studies are recommended to compare the use of plants and classical sampling systems for monitoring the atmospheric deposition of key contaminants toxic to human health. Full article
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