A new very-low volume sampler has been developed with the purpose of allowing spatially-resolved determination of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and of its chemical components. The low-cost, automatic and self-powered device assures long-term (1-2 months) collection of PM on membrane filters, suitable for subsequent chemical analyses. The device showed very good performance in terms of repeatability of the samplings.
The study of the spatial distribution of atmospheric PM and of its components is essential for a reliable identification of emission sources, the evaluation of particle dispersion over the territory and the assessment of personal exposure. However, the very high cost of a network based on traditional PM samplers generally prevents the achievement of these goals. A low-cost, self-powered and automatic device for PM sampling on membrane filters has been recently become available.
Over the last decades, various scientific studies had underlined the potential of biomonitoring to assess environmental quality. The utilization of organisms as bioindicators have been widely described. Biomonitoring often results to be a low-cost and efficient method for the evaluation of environmental quality in comparison to the definition of a traditional monitoring network. In this study we describe the application of two biomonitoring approaches to assess the air quality of Terni (Central Italy).
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