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The Sa rajevo Canton Winter Fi eld Ca mpaign 2018 (SAFICA) was a project that took place in winter 2017-2018 with an aim to characterize the chemical composition of aerosol in the Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which has one of the worst air qualities in Europe. This paper presents the first characterization of the metals in PM 10 (particulate matter aerodynamic diameters ≤10 μm) from continuous filter samples collected during an extended two-months winter period at the urban background Sarajevo and remote Ivan Sedlo sites. We report the results of 18 metals detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The average mass concentrations of metals were higher at the Sarajevo site than at Ivan Sedlo and ranged from 0.050 ng/m 3 (Co) to 188 ng/m 3 (Fe) and from 0.021 ng/m 3 (Co) to 61.8 ng/m 3 (Fe), respectively. The BenMAP-CE model was used for estimating the annual BiH health (50% decrease in PM 2.5 would save 4760+ lives) and economic benefits (costs of $2.29B) of improving the air quality. Additionally, the integrated energy and health assessment with the ExternE model provided an initial estimate of the additional health cost of BiH's energy system.

In this paper, the authors investigated changes in mass concentrations of particulate matter (PM) during the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown. Daily samples of PM 1 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 fractions were measured at an urban background sampling site in Zagreb, Croatia from 2009 to late 2020. For the purpose of meteorological normalization, the mass concentrations were fed alongside meteorological and temporal data to Random Forest (RF) and LightGBM (LGB) models tuned by Bayesian optimization. The models' predictions were subsequently de-weathered by meteorological normalization using repeated random resampling of all predictive variables except the trend variable. Three pollution periods in 2020 were examined in detail: January and February, as pre-lockdown, the month of April as the lockdown period, as well as June and July as the "new normal". An evaluation using normalized mass concentrations of particulate matter and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. The results showed that no significant differences were observed for PM 1 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 in April 2020-compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. No significant changes were observed for the "new normal" as well. The results thus indicate that a reduction in mobility during COVID-19 lockdown in Zagreb, Croatia, did not significantly affect particulate matter concentration in the long-term..

First data on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitro-aromatic compounds (NACs) in aerosols as well as of PAHs, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and NACs in bulk and wet atmospheric deposition samples were simultaneously obtained during 6-month-long field campaign at the costal central Adriatic area. Special attention was given to open-fire biomass burning episodes as extreme events common for the overall Mediterranean coastal area in order to gain a better understanding of the atmospheric variabilities and potential sources of trace organic pollutants in coastal environments. Diesel and gasoline combustion related to land and maritime traffic as well as occasional open-fire episodes (forest fires) were found to be the dominant pollution sources of PAHs in PM 10 particles. NACs were determined almost exclusively in samples affected by biomass burning episodes. Open-fire episodes had a strong contribution to the overall NACs atmospheric deposition fluxes. Several chlorinated congeners of PCBs were predominantly contributed in deposition samples., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of traffic density on air pollutant levels as well as to analyse the spatial and temporal distribution of particulate pollutants and their health risk. The following species related to traffic pollution were measured: PM 10 , elemental and organic carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in PM 10 and gas pollutants (SO 2 , NO 2 and CO). The measurements were carried out at four crossroad sites in the city. Samples of PM 10 were collected over three periods (6 am to 2 pm, 2 pm to 10 pm and 10 pm to 6 am) on working days and weekends. Statistically significant differences were found between sampling sites for all pollutant concentrations, except for NO 2 . The highest mass concentrations of PM 10 , carbon and PAHs were observed in the south of the city with the highest traffic density. Concentrations of gasses (CO and NO 2 ) showed high values in morning and in the late afternoon and evening (west and east). At all measuring sites, the highest concentration of particle-bound pollutants was mostly recorded during morning and afternoon, except at the south, where elevated PAHs concentrations were recorded during night period, which indicated that residential heating takes up a portion of pollution sources in this area. Although for most of the pollutants the concentrations varied during the day, statistically significant differences between sampling periods were not found. The highest health risk was obtained at the south, where it was scored as significant., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

A measurement station located in an urban area on the southern slope of the Medvednica Mountain (120 m a.s.l.), close to the Croatian capital Zagreb, provided data for an analysis of the photosmog in the city of Zagreb. Data for the period 2003-2016 obtained from this station and analysed in this work can also be compared with the nearby Puntijarka station (980 m a.s.l.) for which a similar analysis has already been carried out. In Puntijarka station analysis, it has been shown that there is most probably no significant change in ozone concentrations during the observed period. In this study the mean value of the annual ozone volume fractions showed a linear trend of 0.23 ppb yr -1 , a growth that is in the worst case scenario among the lowest global prediction, while the seasonal (April-to-September) mean values had a trend of 0.32 ppb yr -1 , which is a certain clearly observable growth. The 95-percentile values had trends of 0.009 ppb yr -1 (annual data) and -0.072 ppb yr -1 (seasonal data), respectively. Both of these values show very small changes if any at all. By using FT analysis, with the calculation of uncertainties, we have observed three prominent cycles of 169 ± 4 h (weekly cycle), 24 ± 1 h and 12 ± 1 h (diurnal cycles). Uncertainties were low which strongly indicate that the cycles are present. However, since high concentrations of ozone were observed only sporadically, ozone pollution in the northern part of Zagreb is at the present rather low. A Fourier transformation was used to analyse the data for periodic behaviour, which revealed the existence of diurnal and weekly modulations. Nevertheless, constant monitoring is important and will continue in the future as part of continuous monitoring of the ozone levels in the area., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Airborne particles are composed of inorganic species and organic compounds. PM 1 particles, with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 1 μm, are considered to be important in the context of adverse health effects. Many compounds bound to particulate matter, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), are suspected to be genotoxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic. In this study, PAHs in the PM 1 particle fraction were measured for one year (1/1/2018-31/12/2018). The measuring station was located in the northern residential part of Zagreb, the Croatian capital, close to a street with modest traffic. Significant differences were found between PAH concentrations during cold (January-March, October-December) and warm (April-September) periods of the year. In general, the mass concentrations of PAHs characteristic for car exhausts (benzo(ghi)perylene (BghiP), indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene (IP), and benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF)) were higher during the whole year than concentrations of fluoranthene (Flu) and pyrene (Pyr), which originated mostly from domestic heating and biomass burning. Combustion of diesel and gasoline from vehicles was found to be one of the main PAH sources. The incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) was estimated for three age groups of populations and the results were much lower than the acceptable risk level (1 × 10 -6 ). However, more than ten times higher PAH concentrations in the cold part of the year, as well as associated health risk, emphasize the need for monitoring of PAHs in PM 1 . These data represent a valuable tool in future plans and actions to control PAH sources and to improve the quality of life of urban populations., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and rhodium (Rh) are most widely used in the production of automotive catalytic converters that serve to reduce toxic emissions from motor vehicles. The aim of this study was to quantitatively determine the levels of platinum, palladium and rhodium in the PM 10 and PM 2.5 fraction of airborne particle matter and find their spatial and temporal distribution at different polluted areas of the city of Zagreb, Croatia. The method used in this paper included weekly sampling of airborne particle matter on quartz filters, microwave digestion in acid under high pressure and temperature, and analysis by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS). The results have shown that the highest mean values at all three sampling stations (North, Center, South) were obtained for palladium (3.856 pg m -3 , 5.396 pg m -3 , 5.600 pg m -3 ) and the lowest for rhodium (0.444 pg m -3 , 0.643 pg m -3 , 0.750 pg m -3 ). The average mass concentrations of platinum group elements (PGE) in PM 10 increased for all three elements in the direction North < Center < South which had to do with the traffic load nearby the monitoring stations. The ratio of measured mass concentrations to all measuring stations was similar to platinum, palladium and rhodium content in automotive catalytic converters. Factor analysis grouped platinum, palladium and rhodium at all of the monitoring stations, and their relation to other metals together with the aforementioned results indicate that their main source of pollution is traffic or precisely automotive catalytic converters. At all three of the monitoring sites, higher values were measured during the colder part of the year. The results of measuring platinum, palladium and rhodium levels in the city of Zagreb are the first results of their kind for this area and will provide insights into the contribution of catalytic converters to the presence of these elements in the environment., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to determine and compare the levels of elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) mass concentrations in PM10 particles (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm) between seasons (winter and summer) and at different monitoring sites (urban background and rural industrial). Daily samples of airborne particles were collected on pre-fired quartz fibre filters. PM10 mass concentrations were determined gravimetrically. Samples were analysed for OC and EC with the thermal/optical transmittance method (TOT) and for PAHs by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fluorescence detector. Measurements showed seasonal and spatial variations of mass concentrations for carbon species and for all of the measured PAHs (Flu, Pyr, Chry, BaA, BbF, BaP, BkF, BghiP and IP) in PM10 at the urban site and rural monitoring site described here. Diagnostic PAH ratios (Flu/(Flu + Pyr), BaA/(BaA + Cry), IP/(IP + BghiP), BaP/BghiP, IP/BghiP and BaP/(BaP + Chry)) make it possible to assess the sources of pollution, and these showed that diesel vehicles accounted for most pollution at the rural-industrial (RI) site in the summer, whereas coal and wood combustion were the causes of winter pollution. This difference between winter and summer PAH ratios were more expressed at the RI site than at the UB site because at the UB site the predominant heating fuel was gas. The OC/EC ratio yielded the same conclusion. Factor analysis showed that EC and OC originated from traffic at both sites, PAHs with 5 or more benzene rings originated from wood pellets industry or biomass burning, while Pyr and Flu originated from diesel combustion or as a consequence of different atmospheric behaviour - evaporation and participation in oxidation and photo oxidation processes., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This article presents a new, original application of modern information and communication technology to provide effective real-time dissemination of air quality information and related health risks to the general public. Our on-line subsystem for urban real-time air quality monitoring is a crucial component of a more comprehensive integrated information system, which has been developed by the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health. It relies on a StreamInsight data stream management system and service-oriented architecture to process data streamed from seven monitoring stations across Zagreb. Parameters that are monitored include gases (NO, NO2, CO, O3, H2S, SO2, benzene, NH3), particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), and meteorological data (wind speed and direction, temperature and pressure). Streamed data are processed in real-time using complex continuous queries. They first go through automated validation, then hourly air quality index is calculated for every station, and a report sent to the Croatian Environment Agency. If the parameter values exceed the corresponding regulation limits for three consecutive hours, the web service generates an alert for population groups at risk. Coupled with the Common Air Quality Index model, our web application brings air pollution information closer to the general population and raises awareness about environmental and health issues. Soon we intend to expand the service to a mobile application that is being developed.

The purpose of our investigation was to examine the mass concentrations of EC, OC and TC (EC + OC) in PM(10), PM(2.5) and PM(1) particle fractions. Daily PM(10), PM(2.5) and PM(1) samples were collected at an urban background monitoring site in Zagreb during winter 2009. Average OC and EC mass concentrations were 11.9 and 1.8 μg m(-3) in PM(10), 9.0 and 1.4 μg m(-3) in PM(2.5), and 5.5 and 1.1 μg m(-3) in PM(1). Average OC/EC ratios in PM(10), PM(2.5), and PM(1) were 7.4, 6.9 and 5.4, respectively.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in the PM(10) particle fraction collected at two different measuring sites in Zagreb, Croatia. In summer, concentrations of all PAHs at both sites were low. In winter, mass concentrations of all PAHs measured at southern site were much higher than those at north. Contents of all PAHs in the PM(10) particle fraction were much lower in summer than that in the winter period. For example, average content of BaP in PM(10) in summer was 2.26 ng/mg at site A and 4.17 ng/mg at site B, while in winter it was 34.72 and 46.69 ng/mg, respectively.