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The results of air quality monitoring show significantly increased concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and arsenic in the area located near the town of Kladno in Central Bohemia, Czech Republic. The region of interest is historically associated with coal mines and steelworks. Source apportionment using the method of Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) at three sites has been used to try to explain the reasons of the increased PM2.5, benzo[a]pyrene, and arsenic concentrations in the ambient air. Based on the PMF analysis, nine factors explaining the atmospheric aerosol mass have been identified. The PMF results showed that most of the aerosol mass originated from residential heating (about one third of PM2.5), both primary particles and secondary organic aerosols induced by road traffic (up to approximately 25%), soil and other mineral dust (about 15%), secondary inorganic aerosol ammonium sulfate (up to 16%), ammonium nitrate (up to 14%) and other sulfates (up to 9%). The main source of arsenic and benzo[a]pyrene was residential heating, which accounted for two-thirds and 80% of their total mass, respectively. The results have pointed to the most important measures for effective air quality protection in the area of interest: replacing coal fuel and old boilers used for residential heating in order to reduce arsenic and PAH emissions and mitigate sources of secondary particles precursors to decrease PM concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is occupied with the evaluation of the transboundary transport of pollutants in the Czech–Polish border region (between the Moravian-Silesian region and the Silesian Voivodeship) in Central Europe. It focuses on the evaluation of concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and suspended particles of PM10 depending on meteorological conditions, especially wind direction. The whole area of interest is heavily affected with air pollution of BaP and PM10. Limits of BaP and PM10 are still exceeded. Annual concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene are even several times higher than the value of its annual limit. The elaboration follows the results of the Czech–Polish project "Air Silesia", which dealt with air pollution and the transboundary transport of pollutants in this area and took place in 2010 to 2013. Within this project, a higher transport of pollutants from Poland to the Czech Republic was established. The evaluation of the dependences of PM10 concentrations is based on hourly and daily data of PM10 and hourly data of meteorological quantities. To assess the dependences of daily BaP and PM10 concentrations, a methodology for evaluating daily types of wind direction was implemented into the processing. The results confirm that the problem of above-limit concentrations of BaP and PM10 in the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic and the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland remains. The article confirms there is a higher transport of PM10 concentrations from Poland to the Czech Republic in the area of interest. Higher transport in the same direction is also predicted for daily concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene, although this cannot be clearly confirmed due to the lack of more detailed and identifiable data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]