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. 2016 Aug;58(8 Suppl 1):S31-7.
doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000000759.

Source Apportionment of Airborne Dioxins, Furans, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at a United States Forward Operating Air Base During the Iraq War

Mauro Masiol  1 , Col Timothy M Mallon, Kevin M Haines Jr, Mark J Utell, Philip K Hopke
Affiliations

Source Apportionment of Airborne Dioxins, Furans, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at a United States Forward Operating Air Base During the Iraq War

Mauro Masiol et al. J Occup Environ Med. 2016 Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: The objective was to apportion the sources of the ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofuran concentrations measured at Joint Base Balad in Iraq.

Methods: Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was applied to the data to obtain the chemical profiles and contribution time series of the PAHs, PCDDs, and PCDFs. Conditional probability function (CPF) analyses were performed to assess the source directionality relative to the monitoring sites.

Results: Three source types were identified and apportioned. The sources were: the burn pit, diesel vehicles and generators, and aircraft emissions. The CPF plots were consistent with the assigned source types.

Conclusions: The PCDDs and PCDFs originated primarily from the burn pit. Higher molecular weight PAHs were associated with vehicle emissions while the aircraft emissions were enriched in low molecular weight PAHs.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map of the study area and wind roses computed seasonally on 2007 data. JBB sites: burn-pit (BP); guard tower (GT); transportation field (TF); H6-Housing (H6); contingency aeromedical staging facility (CASF, CA). The location of the weather station is also shown (WS). The map also indicates the location of the helipad, motor pool and housing (circled) areas.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PMF factor profiles. Grey bars are concentration of species in pg m−3 and refer to the left y-axis; black dots represent the percentage on species sum and refer to the right y-axis. Note that the axes for concentration of species are logarithmic.
Figure 3
Figure 3
PMF factor apportionment of ΣPCDDs, ΣPCDFs, ΣTCDD-TEQ, ΣPAHs and ΣBaP-TEQ expressed as concentration (top) and percentage (bottom).
Figure 4
Figure 4
PMF factor contributions to each of the individual monitoring sites at JBB. (Top) Contributions at each site; (Bottom) Fractional contributions at each site. JBB sites: burn-pit (BP); guard tower (GT); transportation field (TF); H6-Housing (H6); contingency aeromedical staging facility (CASF, CA).
Figure 5
Figure 5
CPF results for factor 1: threshold was set to 75th percentile; only records with wind speed > 1 m s−1 are included.
Figure 6
Figure 6
CPF results for factor 2: threshold was set to 75th percentile; only records with wind speed > 1 m s−1 are included.
Figure 7
Figure 7
CPF results for factor 3: threshold was set to 75th percentile; only records with wind speed > 1 m s−1 are included.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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