The characteristics of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and the variation of the gas-particle partitioning of PCDD/Fs near two municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) located in southern Taiwan were investigated. In order to better understand the mechanism of dry deposition, the atmospheric dry deposition flux and velocity of PCDD/Fs were calculated. It was found that the mean atmospheric PCDD/F concentrations (0.0348-0.106 pg I-TEQ/Nm3) were comparable to those detected in the vicinity of MSWIs in Taiwan, but significantly lower than those in a highly industrialized urban area (0.150 pg I-TEQ/Nm3) located in southern Taiwan. The relatively higher atmospheric PCDD/F concentrations was found in winter than in summer. The calculated total dry deposition flux of PCDD/Fs ranged from 0.0274-0.718 ng I-TEQ/m2-month, and the atmospheric deposition flux in winter tended to be higher than those in summer. The results also indicated that dry deposition velocities of atmospheric particles for each month ranged from 0.52-0.91 cm/s (mean = 0.63 cm/s) and 0.48-0.73 cm/s (mean = 0.55 cm/s) in sites A and B, respectively, which were similar to that for the ambient air near two MSWIs in Taiwan, but slightly higher than those in urban area of Korea. In addition, the dry deposition of PCDD/Fs was mainly contributed by particle-phase at both sampling areas during the estimated period. The above results demonstrated that the dominant mechanism of dry deposition was particle phase deposition. The annual variations of wet deposition of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in atmosphere were also measured at two sites (A and B). Results showed that particle scavenging dominates in the wet deposition processes for the removal of PCDD/Fs from the atmosphere, the highest value was observed at the highest chlorinated congener. The ambient temperature and the amount of precipitation played an important role in the variation of PCDD/F deposition fluxes. It was found that temperature was inversely associated with the existence of particulate PCDD/Fs, indicating PCDD/Fs are scavenged most efficiently in cold weather. PCDD/F wet deposition fluxes in rainy seasons (from June to August) were significantly higher than those in dry seasons (from December to February), revealing a positive relationship between wet deposition flux and monthly rainfall. Additionally, the annual total (dry + wet) deposition fluxes of PCDD/Fs were 149 ng/m2-year (5.02 ng I-TEQ/m2-year) and 177 ng/m2-year (5.11 ng I-TEQ/m2-year) for sites A and B, respectively, revealing that dry deposition was more dominant than the wet deposition for the atmospheric deposition of PCDD/Fs. Since atmospheric deposition is believed to be the main transfer pathway of PCDD/Fs into food chains, its impact on human exposure to PCDD/Fs is of great importance.

Chemical composition of particles and rain water at three sites in Turkey were extensively compared to determine if there is a relationship between aerosol and rain composition. If such relationship exists, it can allow one to construct rain water composition using aerosol data. This is important because, rain composition data is scarce as sampling and analysis of very low concentrations of elements and ions in rain water is more difficult compared to sampling and analysis of atmospheric aerosol. Results showed that aerosol composition can be closely reflected in composition of rain water if below cloud processes dominate over the incloud processes. This is clearly observed for crustal elements in all stations and for most of the elements in urban Ankara station. However, in rural stations there were differences in rain and aerosol that is attributed to significant contribution from in cloud processes. Seasonal patterns and enrichment factors observed in aerosol composition showed general agreement with corresponding temporal variations observed in rain water concentrations of elements, but short term variations became visible only if data is averaged over a long period of time. These observations suggest that certain features of rain water composition can be constructed from if concentration data is available for aerosols. However it should be noted that there are also significant differences between stations and between elements or element groups, indicating that composition of rain water constructed from aerosol data can only be a crude one. Similarities between rain and aerosol compositions is more pronounced in urban Ankara station compared to rural stations used in this study. Factor analysis performed to aerosol and rain water data sets showed that source types affecting chemical composition of rain and particles are generally the same, bur contribution of each source type to rain and aerosol composition shows differences. Similarly, the source regions, defined by potential source contribution function, affecting aerosol and rain compositions are not identical. In Antalya station Source regions affecting chemical composition of rain water are more local compared to source regions affecting composition of aerosol. Same difference is not observed in Amasra station. Scavenging ratios is found to be a suitable tool to construct rain water composition using aerosol data. Scavenging ratios calculated using paired daily data are more variable both between stations and within a station. Long-term averaged data was found to be more reliable for calculating SRs of elements and ions at all stations.