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Although many studies have discussed the impact of Europe's air quality, very limited research focused on the detailed phenomenology of ambient trace elements (TEs) in PM 10 in urban atmosphere. This study compiled long-term (2013-2022) measurements of speciation of ambient urban PM 10 from 55 sites of 7 countries (Switzerland, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, UK), aiming to elucidate the phenomenology of 20 TEs in PM 10 in urban Europe. The monitoring sites comprised urban background (UB, n = 26), traffic (TR, n = 10), industrial (IN, n = 5), suburban background (SUB, n = 7), and rural background (RB, n = 7) types. The sampling campaigns were conducted using standardized protocols to ensure data comparability. In each country, PM 10 samples were collected over a fixed period using high-volume air samplers. The analysis encompassed the spatio-temporal distribution of TEs, and relationships between TEs at each site. Results indicated an annual average for the sum of 20 TEs of 90 ± 65 ng/m 3 , with TR and IN sites exhibiting the highest concentrations (130 ± 66 and 131 ± 80 ng/m 3 , respectively). Seasonal variability in TEs concentrations, influenced by emission sources and meteorology, revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) across all monitoring sites. Estimation of TE concentrations highlighted distinct ratios between non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic metals, with Zn (40 ± 49 ng/m 3 ), Ti (21 ± 29 ng/m 3 ), and Cu (23 ± 35 ng/m 3 ) dominating non-carcinogenic TEs, while Cr (5 ± 7 ng/m 3 ), and Ni (2 ± 6 ng/m 3 ) were prominent among carcinogenic ones. Correlations between TEs across diverse locations and seasons varied, in agreement with differences in emission sources and meteorological conditions. This study provides valuable insights into TEs in pan-European urban atmosphere, contributing to a comprehensive dataset for future environmental protection policies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Toxicity of particulate matter (PM) depends on its sources, size and composition. We identified PM 10 sources and determined their contribution to oxidative potential (OP) as a health proxy for PM exposure in an Alpine valley influenced by cement industry. PM 10 filter sample chemical analysis and equivalent black carbon (eBC) were measured at an urban background site from November 2020 to November 2021. Using an optimized Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model, the source chemical fingerprints and contributions to PM 10 were determined. The OP assessed through two assays, ascorbic acid (AA) and dithiothreitol (DTT), was attributed to the PM sources from the PMF model with a multiple linear regression (MLR) model. Ten factors were found at the site, including biomass burning (34, 40 and 38% contribution to annual PM 10 , OP AA and OP DDT , respectively), traffic (14, 19 and 7%), nitrate- and sulphate-rich (together: 16, 5 and 8%), aged sea salt (2, 2 and 0%) and mineral dust (10, 12 and 17%). The introduction of innovative organic tracers allowed the quantification of the PM primary and secondary biogenic fractions (together: 13, 8 and 21%). In addition, two unusual factors due to local features, a chloride-rich factor and a second mineral dust-rich factor (named the cement dust factor) were found, contributing together 10, 14 and 8%. We associate these two factors to different processes in the cement plant. Despite their rather low contribution to PM 10 mass, these sources have one of the highest OPs per µg of source. The results of the study provide vital information about the influence of particular sources on PM 10 and OP in complex environments and are thus useful for PM control strategies and actions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Oxidative stress is a prominent pathway for the health effects associated with fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) exposure. Oxidative potential (OP) of PM has been associated to several health endpoints, but studies on its impact on biomarkers of oxidative stress remains insufficient. 300 pregnant women from the SEPAGES cohort (France) carried personal PM 2.5 samplers for a week and OP was measured using ascorbic acid (AA) and dithiothreitol (DTT) assays, and normalized by 1) PM 2.5 mass (OP m ) and 2) sampled air volume (OP v ). A pool of three urine spots collected on the 7th day of PM sampling was analyzed for biomarkers, namely 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), malondialdehyde (MDA) and 8-isoprostaglandin-F2α (8-isoPGF2α). Associations were investigated using adjusted multiple linear regressions. OP effects were additionally investigated by stratifying by median PM 2.5 concentration (14 μg m -3 ). In the main models, no association was observed with 8-isoPGF2α, nor MDA. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in OP m AA exposure was associated with increased 8-OHdG (percent change: 6.2 %; 95 % CI: 0.2 % to 12.6 %). In the stratified analysis, exposure to OP m AA was associated with 8-OHdG for participants exposed to low levels of PM 2.5 (percent change: 11.4 %; 95 % CI: 3.3 % to 20.1 %), but not for those exposed to high levels (percent change: -1.0 %; 95 % CI: -10.6 % to 9.6 %). Associations for OP m DTT also followed a similar pattern (p-values for OP m AA -PM and OP m DTT -PM interaction terms were 0.12 and 0.11, respectively). Overall, our findings suggest that OP m AA may be associated with increased DNA oxidative damage. This association was not observed with PM 2.5 mass concentration exposure. The effects of OP m AA in 8-OHdG tended to be stronger at lower (below median) vs. higher concentrations of PM 2.5 . Further epidemiological, toxicological and aerosol research are needed to further investigate the OP m AA effects on 8-OHdG and the potential modifying effect of PM mass concentration on this association., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

For a Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) aerosol source apportionment (SA) studies there is no standard procedure to select the most appropriate chemical components to be included in the input dataset for a given site typology, nor specific recommendations in this direction. However, these choices are crucial for the final SA outputs not only in terms of number of sources identified but also, and consequently, in the source contributions estimates. In fact, PMF tends to reproduce most of PM mass measured independently and introduced as a total variable in the input data, regardless of the percentage of PM mass which has been chemically characterized, so that the lack of some specific source tracers (e.g. levoglucosan) can potentially affect the results of the whole source apportionment study. The present study elaborates further on the same concept, evaluating quantitatively the impact of lacking specific sources' tracers on the whole source apportionment, both in terms of identified sources and source contributions. This work aims to provide first recommendations on the most suitable and critical components to be included in PMF analyses in order to reduce PMF output uncertainty as much as possible, and better represent the most commons PM sources observed in many sites in Western countries. To this aim, we performed three sensitivity analyses on three different datasets across EU, including extended sets of organic tracers, in order to cover different types of urban conditions (Mediterranean, Continental, and Alpine), source types, and PM fractions. Our findings reveal that the vehicle exhaust source resulted to be less sensitive to the choice of analytes, although source contributions estimates can deviate significantly up to 44 %. On the other hand, for the detection of the non-exhaust one is clearly necessary to analyze specific inorganic elements. The choice of not analysing non-polar organics likely causes the loss of separation of exhaust and non-exhaust factors, thus obtaining a unique road traffic source, which provokes a significant bias of total contribution. Levoglucosan was, in most cases, crucial to identify biomass burning contributions in Milan and in Barcelona, in spite of the presence of PAHs in Barcelona, while for the case of Grenoble, even discarding levoglucosan, the presence of PAHs allowed identifying the BB factor. Modifying the rest of analytes provoke a systematic underestimation of biomass burning source contributions. SIA factors resulted to be generally overestimated with respect to the base case analysis, also in the case that ions were not included in the PMF analysis. Trace elements were crucial to identify shipping emissions (V and Ni) and industrial sources (Pb, Ni, Br, Zn, Mn, Cd and As). When changing the rest of input variables, the uncertainty was narrow for shipping but large for industrial processes. Major and trace elements were also crucial to identify the mineral/soil factor at all cities. Biogenic SOA and Anthropogenic SOA factors were sensitive to the presence of their molecular tracers, since the availability of OC alone is unable to separate a SOA factor. Arabitol and sorbitol were crucial to detecting fungal spores while odd number of higher alkanes (C27 to C31) for plant debris., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Xavier Querol reports financial support was provided by European Commission. Fulvio Amato reports financial support was provided by Spain Ministry of Science and Innovation. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Fine particulate matter ( PM 2.5 ) has been found to be detrimental to respiratory health of children, but few studies have examined the effects of prenatal PM 2.5 oxidative potential (OP) on lung function in infants and preschool children., Objectives: We estimated the associations of personal exposure to PM 2.5 and OP during pregnancy on offspring objective lung function parameters and compared the strengths of associations between both exposure metrics., Methods: We used data from 356 mother-child pairs from the SEPAGES cohort. PM filters collected twice during a week were analyzed for OP, using the dithiothreitol (DTT) and the ascorbic acid (AA) assays, quantifying the exposure of each pregnant woman. Lung function was assessed with tidal breathing analysis (TBFVL) and nitrogen multiple-breath washout ( N 2 MBW ) test, performed at 6 wk, and airwave oscillometry (AOS) performed at 3 y. Associations of prenatal PM 2.5 mass and OP with lung function parameters were estimated using multiple linear regressions., Results: In neonates, an interquartile (IQR) increase in OP v DTT ( 0.89  nmol / min / m 3 ) was associated with a decrease in functional residual capacity (FRC) measured by N 2 MBW [ β = - 2.26 mL ; 95% confidence interval (CI): - 4.68 , 0.15]. Associations with PM 2.5 showed similar patterns in comparison with OP v DTT but of smaller magnitude. Lung clearance index (LCI) and TBFVL parameters did not show any clear association with the exposures considered. At 3 y, increased frequency-dependent resistance of the lungs ( Rrs 7 - 19 ) from AOS tended to be associated with higher OP v DTT ( β = 0.09  hPa × s / L ; 95% CI: - 0.06 , 0.24) and OP v AA ( IQR = 1.14  nmol / min / m 3 ; β = 0.12  hPa × s / L ; 95% CI: - 0.04 , 0.27) but not with PM 2.5 ( IQR = 6.9   μ g / m 3 ; β = 0.02  hPa × s / L ; 95% CI: - 0.13 , 0.16). Results for FRC and Rrs 7 - 19 remained similar in OP models adjusted on PM 2.5 ., Discussion: Prenatal exposure to OP v DTT was associated with several offspring lung function parameters over time, all related to lung volumes. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11155.