Ubiquitous occurrence of 2-nitrofluoranthene and 2-nitropyrene in air

• Published in: Nature (London) 1986-05, Vol.321 (6068), p.425-427
• Main Authors: Ramdahl, Thomas, Zielinska, Barbara, Arey, Janet, Atkinson, Roger, Winer, Arthur M, Pitts, James N
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Fluorenes - analysis; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry - methods; Humanities and Social Sciences; letter; multidisciplinary; Mutagens - analysis; Norway; Polycyclic Compounds - analysis; Pyrenes - analysis; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); United States
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/321425a0

Several nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nitro-PAH) are direct-acting mutagens 1,2 and/or carcinogens 2–4 , and are important constituents of combustion emissions and ambient air. These nitro-PAH are emitted from various combustion sources including gasoline and diesel engine exhaust 5–8 , aluminium smelting effluent 9 , coal fly ash 10 , wood smoke 6 , and cigarette smoke condensates 11 . Of these, diesel engine exhaust is the best characterized 6–8 , more than 50 nitrated polycyclic aromatic compounds having been identified by Paputa-Peck et al. 8 , including 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) as the single most abundant nitro-PAH. However, nitro-PAH may also be formed during source–receptor transport by atmospheric reactions of adsorbed or gas-phase PAH with oxides of nitrogen, nitric acid and other atmospherically important species such as the OH radical 1,12–14 . Evidence for the atmospheric formation of nitro-PAH has come only recently, from observations that 2-nitropyrene (2-NP) 15–17 and 2-nitrofluoranthene (2-NF) 16,17 neither of which has been reported to be emitted from combustion sources, are among the major nitro-PAH present in ambient air. We present here data from several locations which demonstrate that these two atmospherically formed nitro-PAH are ubiquitous in tropospheric ambient air.