Assessment of pollution aerosols sources above the Straits of Dover using lead isotope geochemistry

We assess the capability of lead isotopes to study the transport of pollution aerosols above the Straits of Dover by collecting atmospheric aerosols above the Eastern Channel and the Southern Eight of the North Sea. During the same period, we characterized the lead isotopic signature of the main industrial sources on the French coast near the Straits of Dover. Urban and automobile-derived aerosols were also collected. Due to the phasing out of lead in gasoline, the urban isotopic composition (Pb-206/Pb-207 = 1.158 +/- 0.003) has become more radiogenic, although it is highly variable. On a regional scale, major industrial emissions have a well-defined isotopic composition (1.13 < Pb-206/Pb-207 < 1.22), more radiogenic than the petrol-lead signature (1.06 < Pb-206/Pb-207 < 1.12). These results together with those measured near the main coastal highway show that the automobile source has become a minor component of particulate lead in air. On a local scale, Dunkerque, the most urbanized and industrialized area along the Straits of Dover, may transiently control elevated lead concentrations. Except for the occurrence of local and regional range transport episodes, lead concentrations in the Straits of Dover can be related to remote or semi-remote pollution source emissions. Combining air mass retrospective trajectories and related lead abundances and isotopic compositions, it can be shown that lead aerosols originating from eastern Europe have an isotopic signature (1.145 < Pb-206/Pb-207 < 1.169) different from the isotopic composition of west-European lead aerosols (1.111 < Pb-206/Pb-207 < 1.142). The influence of remote North American sources is suggested, with caution, due to uncertainties in meteorological calculations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.