Chemical composition and source apportionment of PM2.5 during Chinese Spring Festival at Xinxiang, a heavily polluted city in North China: Fireworks and health risks

Twenty-four PM2.5 samples were collected at a suburban site of Xinxiang during Chinese Spring Festival (SF) in 2015. 10 water-soluble ions, 19 trace elements and 8 fractions of carbonaceous species in PM2.5 were analyzed. Potential sources of PM2.5 were quantitatively apportioned using principal component analysis (PCA)-multivariate linear regressions (MLR). The threat of heavy metals in PM2.5 was assessed using incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR). During the whole period, serious regional haze pollution persisted, the average concentration of PM2.5 was 111±54μgm−3, with 95.8% and 79.2% of the daily samples exhibiting higher PM2.5 concentrations than the national air quality standard I and II. Chemical species declined due to holiday effect with the exception of K, Fe, Mg, Al and K+, Cl−, which increased on Chinese New Year (CNY)'s Eve and Lantern Festival in 2015, indicating the injection of firework burning particles in certain short period. PM2.5 mass closure showed that secondary inorganic species were the dominant fractions of PM2.5 over the entire sampling (37.3%). 72-hour backward trajectory clusters indicated that most serious air pollution occurred when air masses transported from the Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Zhengzhou. Health risk assessment revealed that noncancerous effects of heavy metals in PM2.5 of Xinxiang were unlikely happened, while lifetime cancer risks of heavy metals obviously exceeded the threshold, which might have a cancer risk for residents in Xinxiang. This study provided detailed composition data and first comprehensive analysis of PM2.5 during the Spring Festival period in Xinxiang. [Display omitted] •The effect of firecracker burning on PM2.5 characteristics and human health was assessed.•The burning of firecrackers elevated PM2.5 in a short time.•The burning of firecrackers changed the chemical compositions of PM2.5•PM2.5 concentrations differed for various air mass origins.•Lifetime cancer risks of heavy metals (6.54×10−5) obviously exceed the threshold (10−6).