Abstract
Background: Airborne particulate matter is one of the most important atmospheric pollutants. Tile sources of particulate matter in the atmosphere are divided into two groups; 1) natural sources and 2) anthropogenic sources. The important components of airborne particulate matter and invarying concentrations are the ubiquitous components of the lower atmosphere. Heavy metals are mainly emitted into the atmosphere ham anthropogenic sources. The major anthropogenic sources of heavy metals in the atmosphere included lI1cineratlon of wastes, smelting of ores, fossil fuel combustion, etc.
Methods: In this study, airborne particulate matter from the atmosphere of Isfahan city was collected on paper filter (whatman No. 41) by using a high-volume air sampler sampling period was 24 hours and sampling was performed at five stations. The extraction of heavy metals from airborne particulate matter was performed by a wet digestion procedure. For determining the concentration of heavy metals, the technique of flame atomic absorption was used. Then the enrichment factor (EF) was calculated for different elements (Cu, Cr, Zn, Fe, Pb, Ca, Cd and AI) and compared the individual contributions with A]
Results: Table I shows the concentration of heavy metals in crustal of earth. Table 2 summarizes the environmental factor (EF) on ambient aerosols obtained at the five sampling sites. The data show EF= 2558.4 for Cd, EF = 582.8 for Pb, EF = 109.8 for Zn and EF = 40.1 for Cu, and all of them, are added to environment via the human activities and energy consumption.
Conclusions: The increase in airborne contaminants. As a consequence of increase activity related to the city growth IS easy to understand. Fe with EF = 1.12 has only natural sources. and Cr with EF= 2.75, Ca with EF= 5.78 and Ni with EF=6.9 have both natural and anthropogenic sources, Cu with EF=40.1, Zn with EF=110.8, Pb with EF= 582.8 and Cd with EF=2558.4 are emitted from anthropogenic sources .