Measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 particle concentrations in Athens, Greece

During the period of 1 June 1999 through 31 May 2000, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were measured in downtown Athens, Greece. The monitoring site was located 6.7 m above ground near a highly trafficked and congested road. Daily PM10 and PM2.5 samples were collected using semi-automatic low-volume samplers. The average 24-h PM10 concentration during the sampling period was 75.5 mug/m(3). Daily PM10 concentrations exceeded the European Union limit (for the year 2000) for approximately 42% of the sampling days. The average PM2.5 measured concentration was 40.2 mug/m(3), which is considerably higher than the United States National Ambient Air Quality PM2.5 annual standard, 15 mug/m(3). The mean coarse particle concentration, PM10 minus PM2.5, was 35.3 mug/m(3) representing about 50% of the average PM10. PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were highly correlated with carbon monoxide, black carbon and nitrogen oxides and inversely correlated with local wind speed. Regression models using continuous and categorical variables were developed to investigate the complex relationships between meteorological and time period parameters and particle concentrations. The results of this analysis underlined the importance of local emission sources, mostly from traffic, which are responsible for the high PM10 and PM2.5 concentration levels observed during this one year-sampling period. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.