Effect of fireworks display on perchlorate in air aerosols during the Spring Festival

Perchlorate is regarded as a new emerging persistent inorganic environmental contaminant. It can result in important neurodevelopmental deficits and goiter in infants and children because of its inhibition of iodine uptake into the thyroid tissue. Furthermore, its presence in the human body can cause improper regulation of metabolism for adults. It is often used as ingredient in the production of fireworks. So fireworks display may influence the perchlorate levels in atmospheric particulate matter (PM). In this paper perchlorate was determined in air aerosol samples (Inhalable particulate matter (PM10) and larger particulate matter (PM10-100)) collected from two locations (Lanzhou City and Yuzhong County) in Gansu province over a month period (February 1rst to March 4th) during the Spring Festival (February 18th) in 2007 in order to study the effect of fireworks display on perchlorate in air aerosol. The results showed that different concentrations of perchlorate were detected in almost all samples, ranging from <detection limit value to 39.16 ng m−3. And the detection frequencies of perchlorate were 91% (100%) and 50% (59%) for PM10-100 (PM10) in Lanzhou City and Yuzhong County, respectively. The highest concentrations were all found in the samples from two sites on New Year’s Eve, which was 39.16 ng m−3 (PM10-100) and 9.89 ng m−3 (PM10) for Lanzhou city, 3.43 ng m−3 (PM10-100) and 4.97 ng m−3 (PM10) for Yuzhong County, 6.8-26.2 times as the mean concentrations during the period of no or limited fireworks display. This indicated that the fireworks display during the Spring Festival can result in the levels of perchlorate increase.