Environ Geochem Health

DOI 10.1007/s10653-007-9089-x

ORIGINAL PAPER

Characteristics of major volatile organic hazardous air

pollutants in the urban air of Kaohsiung city
Mei-Chuan Huang Æ Jim Juimin Lin

Received: 25 September 2006 / Accepted: 9 February 2007

Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007

Abstract The concentrations and characteristics for ethylbenzene, 3.73–5.34 ppb for m,p-xylene,
of volatile organic hazardous air pollutants 3.38–4.22 ppb for o-xylene, and 4.48–7.00 ppb for
(HAPs) in the urban city of Kaohsiung from styrene. The average monitored concentrations of
motor vehicles and dense pollutant sources has the major volatile organic HAPs tended to follow
become a national concern. To continuously the pattern San-min > Nan-tz > Hsiao-kang >
monitor volatile organic HAPs, sampling sites Tso-ying. Among all the species monitored in
were selected near the four air-quality monitoring this study, toluene had the highest ambient
stations established by Ethe nvironmental concentration, followed by styrene, m,p-xylene,
Protection Administration of Taiwan ROC, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and benzene. The results
namely Nan-tz, Tso-ying, San-min and Hsiao- showed that the concentration at night was higher
kang, from north to south. An on-site automated than that in the day for toluene at Nan-tz, San-
online monitor of volatile organic compounds min, Hsiao-kang, and for benzene at Nan-tz and
(VOCs) was used for continuous monitoring. This Hsiao-kang.
study performed two consecutive days of 24-h
monitoring of five volatile organic HAPs form Keywords Volatile organic hazardous air
August to October 2005 at the four monitoring pollutants
Urban area
BTEX
Taiwan
sites, which cover the northern, central, and
southern areas of Kaohsiung city. The average
monitored concentration was 2.78–4.84 ppb for
benzene, 5.90–9.66 ppb for toluene, 3.62–5.90 ppb Introduction

The 1990 US Clean Air Act (CAA) listed 188

M.-C. Huang hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). The definition
Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, of hazardous air pollutants was further clarified
National Kaohsiung First University of Science and by the Clean Air Act amendments (CAAA),
Technology, Nanzih, Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan, ROC
which identified them as ‘‘any air pollutants or
J. J. Lin (&) chemicals that incur increased mortality, cause
Department of Safety, Health, and Environmental non-recoverable severe human health damage or
Engineering, National Kaohsiung First University of recoverable disability, or indirect severe health
Science and Technology, No. 2, Jhuoyue Road,
Nanzih, Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan, ROC hazards’’. In 1996, the 189 HAPs listed in the
e-mail: [email protected] CAAA were mainly volatile organic compounds

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 Environ Geochem Health

(VOCs), while benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, pollution (Chan et al. 1991, 1994; Kuo et al.
xylene and styrene were listed as urban air toxics 2000). It has received considerable attention
(UAT). owing to its negative influence on human health.
To date, there have been no direct definite laws The physical and chemical characteristics of
on HAPs control in Taiwan. According to the BTEX are similar. All are additive components
existing domestic laws on toxic and hazardous of petrol (Christina et al. 1996) and are used
substances control, HAPs in Taiwan include together with styrene in industrial solvents.
VOCs, heavy metals, acidic gases and fluoride, Although research on HAPs is now gaining
among which the majority are VOCs followed by momentum, there is not much continuous mon-
heavy metals and their compounds. In 1995, the itoring data available on BETX and styrene in
Environmental Protection Administration of Tai- Kaohsiung city. It is urgent and necessary to
wan ROC assessed more than 10 HAPs and identify the pollutants and their ambient concen-
proposed initially to study and control 30 HAPs, tration level in densely populated urban areas and
including 21 VOCs such as benzene, four heavy to further explore the HAPs and their concentra-
metals, three acidic gases, polycyclic aromatic tion in the suburban areas. Thus, to probe the
hydrocarbons (PAHs), and naphthalene. concentration and distribution of major volatile
The Environmental Protection Bureau of the organic HAPs in the air of Kaohsiung city, four
Kaohsiung city government, Taiwan, ROC stud- monitoring sites were set up in the districts of
ied emission quantities and the severity of organic Nan-tz, Tso-ying, San-min, and Hsiao-gang to
HAPs in industrial and urban areas, and found measure BETX and styrene. The objective of this
that the primary emissions were toluene, xylene, study was to investigate the major volatile organic
and benzene. Further study conducted in 2003 to hazardous air pollutant concentrations at four
single out the HAPs that have a significant impact urban sites and characterize their sources.
on the Kaohsiung industrial and urban area (e.g. Information obtained in this research will allow
benzene, toluene, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloro- continuing evaluation of changes in air quality in
ethylene, vinyl chloride and formaldehyde) and to Kaohsiung city and help produce further emission
inspect more pollutant sources demonstrated that source control strategies.
the atmospheric concentration of HAPs at the
urban monitoring station in Kaohsiung tended to
be higher than in the industrial park, and more- Methods
over that the concentration of toluene was signif-
icant, demonstrating that vehicle exhausts had a To monitor the volatile organic HAPs continu-
greater impact than any of the stationary sources. ously, the sampling sites were chosen near the
The Kao-Ping area (including Kaohsiung city, four air-quality monitoring stations set up by
Kaohsiung county and Pingtung county) in Tai- the Environmental Protection Administration of
wan is an industrial region filled with highly Taiwan ROC: Nan-tz, Tso-ying, San-min, and
contaminating industry such as petrochemical, Hsiao-kang, from north to south (see Fig. 1). The
steel and electricity plants. According to the four monitoring sites were deliberately located to
Taiwan emission data system (TEDS 5.1), in be representative of the northern, central, and
Kaohsiung city the five major pollutants are southern areas of Kaohsiung city: Nan-tz and
toluene, xylene, styrene, ethylbenzene, and ben- Hsiao-kang for the industrial areas nearby,
zene, with emissions of 6,022.68, 3,970.45, San-min in an area mixed with residence and
1,754.27, 1,572.14, and 1,521.31 ton/year, respec- commerce, and Tso-ying in a residential business
tively. Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xy- area, suffering from pollution incurred by naval
lene (BTEX) share the characteristics of higher activities. With onshore and northwesterly winds,
boiling point, lower permissible exposure limit the measurement in Tso-ying can be a reference
and acute toxicity (Wixtron and Brown 1992). for others.
BTEX is often taken as the index of pollution The monitoring period was from August to
sources due to its static composition in the same October 2005 (detailed information is shown in

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Environ Geochem Health

Fig. 1 Locations of the

four motoring sites in the
city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Table 1). Two days of 24-h monitoring were For C6–C12 analysis, set the initial temperature
performed at each site and hourly analysis data to 34°C, heat the sample to 50°C at 2°C/min, and
were obtained. During the monitoring period a then to 100°C at 10°C/min, and to 195°C at 16°C
total of 48 sets of ambient concentration data of min for 10 min.
the species were obtained from each site. Hourly After measuring in a mass flow controller, the
wind speed and direction data were collected sample was transmitted to a gas chromatography
during the monitoring period for each monitoring (GC) or a flame ionization detector (FID), where
batch and are presented as the average wind the sample was separated in a separation tube; its
speed and dominant wind direction in Table 1. concentration was calculated by comparing with
An on-site automated online VOC monitor other standard samples at various concentrations
(Airmo VOC 593 C2–C6 and Airmo VOC 294 for the retention time. Using the high tempera-
C6–C12) was used for continuous monitoring. ture from burning hydrogen in oxygen, the
The operation was as follows: set the initial sample was pyrolyzed into ions, which formed
temperature to 38°C, heat the sample to 140°C an ionic flow under the electric field. The ionic
at 10°C/min, then to 156°C at 2°C/min, and to flow was then gathered by the electrodes and
190°C at 17°C/min for 12 min for C2–C6 analysis. formed an electric current, where the major

Table 1 Detailed information of the volatile organic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) monitoring study
Sample ID Monitoring site Monitoring period Average wind Dominant wind
speed (m/s) direction

1 Nan-tz 2005/8/10 12:00–2005/8/12 12:00 3.0 Southeast

Tso-ying 2005/8/29 12:00–2005/8/31 12:00
San-min 2005/8/20 12:00–2005/8/22 12:00
Hsiao-kang 2005/8/15 12:00–2005/8/17 12:00
2 Nan-tz 2005/9/15 12:00–2005/9/17 12:00 2.1 Northwest
Tso-ying 2005/9/9 12:00–2005/9/11 12:00
San-min 2005/9/21 12:00–2005/9/23 12:00
Hsiao-kang 2005/9/27 12:00–2005/9/29 12:00
3 Nan-tz 2005/10/4 12:00–2005/10/6 12: 00 2.1 Northwest
Tso-ying 2005/10/16 12:00–2005/10/18 12:00
San-min 2005/10/21 12:00–2005/10/23 12:00
Hsiao-kang 2005/10/28 12:00–2005/10/30 12:00

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 Environ Geochem Health

HAPs were quantitatively and qualitatively stud- occurring at San-min. Figure 2 shows the ambient
ied. The sampling and analysis procedures were in concentration levels for these volatile organic
accordance with NIEA A722.72 B and NIEA HAPs at the four monitoring sites.
A723.72 B, the standard methods published by In general, among these species, toluene had
the Environment Inspection Office of the Envi- the highest ambient concentration, followed by
ronment Protection Bureau, to ensure the quality styrene, m,p-xylene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and
of the experimental data. The R2 value of the benzene. The peak concentrations of benzene,
calibration curve for the five volatile organic ethylbenzene, m,p-xylene, and styrene occurred
HAPs (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p- at San-min, while the peak concentrations of
xylene, o-xylene, and styrene) was 1.000, 0.998, toluene and o-xylene occurred at Nan-tz, demon-
0.999, 0.993, 1.000 and 1.000, respectively. The strating the severity of the pollution of the two
detection limit was 0.11 ppb for benzene, areas in Kaohsiung city and the urgent need for
0.16 ppb for toluene, 0.55 ppb for ethylbenzene, action.
1.34 ppb for m,p-xylene, 0.66 ppb for o-xylene, Average wind speed and dominant wind direc-
and 0.98 ppb for styrene. tion of each monitoring sample are presented in
Table 1. The average wind speed and dominant
wind direction was typical in the season in
Results and discussion Kaohsiung city. However, the monitoring period
did not cover different seasons and could not show
Average concentrations of the major volatile the variation between seasons. Also all kinds of
organic HAPs emission source (stationary, mobile, and area
sources) are widely distributed in Kaohsiung city.
During the monitoring period, the average Therefore, it was difficult to identify a noticeable
concentration of benzene was 2.78–4.84 ppb with impact of wind speed and direction on the
the peak occurring at San-min; 5.90–9.66 ppb for ambient concentrations of the monitored species.
toluene with the peak occurring at Nan-tz; 3.62– Kaohsiung city is the main industrial center in
5.90 ppb for ethylbenzene with the peak occur- south Taiwan and is considered the southern rival
ring at San-min; 3.73–5.34 ppb for m,p-xylene to the capital Taipei in the north. In general, the
with the peak occurring at San-min; 3.38–4.22 ppb ambient concentration level of the volatile
for o-xylene with the peak occurring at Nan-tz; organic HAPs monitored was higher than that
and 4.48–7.00 ppb for styrene with the peak in urban areas (Chiang et al. 1995; Moschonas

Fig. 2 Average 30
concentrations of the six Benzene
volatile organic hazardous Toluene
air pollutants monitored 25 Ethylbenzene
in this study m,p-Xylene
Concentration, ppb

o-Xylene
20 Styrene

15

10

0
Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang

Monitoring site

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Environ Geochem Health

and Glavas 1996; Kim et al. 1997; Na et al. 2001) species at the four sites. During the second
and in industrial areas (Na et al. 2001; Chan et al. monitoring period, concentrations of monitored
2002) (shown in Table 2). The results obtained in species were higher at San-min and Nan-tz, as
this study indicate that further reduction plans for shown in Fig. 4. Toluene and styrene had higher
control of emission sources of volatile organic concentrations among the four sites. During the
HAPs are needed to improve ambient air quality. third monitoring period, species had higher
Among the volatile organic HAPs monitored, concentrations at San-min and Hsiao-kang than
toluene had the highest ambient concentration, as at the other sites. Toluene and styrene had higher
is the case in other large metropolizes such as concentrations than the other species at the four
Taipei (Taiwan, ROC)(Chiang et al. 1995), Seoul sites (shown in Fig. 5).
(Korea) (Kim et al. 1997), Los Angeles (USA) Overall, San-min had the highest ambient
(Edgerton et al. 1989), Hong Kong (China) concentrations of monitored species, followed
(Chan et al. 2002) and Rome (Italy) (Brocco by Nan-tz > Hsiao-kang > Tso-ying.The San-min
et al. 1997). This might be because toluene is a site is located in a residential-business mixed-use
widely used solvent in commercial and industrial area where the major thoroughfares of Kaohsiung
plants and a key ingredient in vehicle fuel oil, and converge and thus has a very heavy traffic flow.
Kaohsiung has a heavy concentration of both Related studies demonstrated that most VOCs in
industry and vehicles. urban air came from motor vehicles (Wadden
et al. 1986), among which automobiles were
Batch average concentration of the major believed to have the highest discharges of around
volatile organic HAPs 33.0% (Doskoy et al. 1992). A VOCs study in
Chicago (USA) found that 60.8% of total dis-
The average ambient concentration of the major charges came from automobiles while 11.1%
volatile organic HAPs (BTEX and styrene) based came directly from gasoline volatilization (O’shea
on the first measurements is shown in Fig. 3. and Scheff 1988), and a similar study conducted in
Species had higher concentrations at San-min and Tokyo (Japan), found that 70% of discharges
Hsiao-kang than at the other sites. Evidently came from vehicle exhausts and 10.5% came from
toluene had a higher concentration than the other the direct gasoline volatilization (Wadden et al.

Table 2 Summary of the average concentration (ppb) of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) and styrene
at different locations based on a survey of the literature
Sampling site Benzene Toluene Ethylbenzene m,p-Xylene o-Xylene Styrene Reference

This study 2.78–4.84 5.90–9.66 3.62–5.90 3.73–5.34 3.38–4.22 4.48–7.00

Taipei, Taiwan 3.4 7.2 1.0 3.9b – – Chiang et al. (1995)
Seoul, Korea 2.0 10 0.9 2.6b – – Kim et al. (1997)
Los Angeles, USA 8.0 15.0 2.0 11.0 5.0 – Edgerton et al. (1989)
Izmir, Turey 0.3–11.1 0.1–26.9 0.1–28.2 1.3–6.6 – – Eryigit (2000)
Hong Kong,a China Chan et al. (2002)
KC 10.0 ± 14.4 30.9 ± 28.0 1.3 ± 2.4 4.2 ± 6.9 2.2 ± 4.4 –
MK 9.1 ± 4.6 18.6 ± 10.6 0.5 ± 0.5 2.4 ± 2.0 0.5 ± 0.5 –
SSP 5.5 ± 6.5 11.0 ± 10.7 0.2 ± 0.4 1.6 ± 2.4 0.3 ± 0.6 –
TST 6.5 ± 10.3 12.8 ± 3.4 0.2 ± 0.1 1.8 ± 0.7 0.3 ± 0.1 –
Ulsan, Korea Na et al. (2001)
Downtown site 1.2 ± 0.3 3.9 ± 0.5 0.7 ± 0.3 2.1 ± 0.4 0.9 ± 0.4 0.3 ± 0.2
Industrial site 2.1 ± 0.8 3.9 ± 0.9 0.9 ± 0.3 3.8 ± 1.0 1.1 ± 0.4 0.8 ± 0.4
Rome, Italy 10.9 25.9 4.0 12.3 5.7 – Brocco et al. (1997)
Athens, Greece 0.8–18.7 0.4–8.2 0.6–8.1 2.6–29.8 1.4–6.4 – Moschonas and
Glavas (1996)
a
The survey stations in Hong Kong were scattered among the industrial zone Kwai Chung (KC), the business area
Mongkok (MK), the residential area Sham Shui Po (SSP) and the city center Tsim Sha Tsui (TST)
b
m,p,o-xylene

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 Environ Geochem Health

30 5

Day-time to night-time concentration ratio

Benzene
(a) Toluene (b) Benzene
Toluene
25 Ethylbenzene Ethylbenzene
m,p-Xylene 4 m,p-Xylene
o-Xylene
Concentration, ppb

o-Xylene
Styrene
20 Styrene

15

2
10

1
5

0 0
Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang
Monitoring site Monitoring site

Fig. 3 (a) Average concentrations of the six volatile organic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) for sample 1; (b) Average
day/night concentration ratio of the six volatile organic hazardous air pollutants for sample 1

30 Day-time to night-time concentration ratio 5

Benzene Benzene
(a) Toluene
(b) Toluene
25 Ethylbenzene Ethylbenzene
m,p-Xylene 4 m,p-Xylene
o-Xylene
Concentration, ppb

o-Xylene
Styrene Styrene
20
3

15
2
10

1
5

0 0
Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang
Monitoring site Monitoring site

Fig. 4 (a) Average concentrations of the six volatile organic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) for sample 2; (b) Average
day/night concentration ratio of the six volatile organic hazardous air pollutants for sample 2
Day-time to night-time comcentration ratio

30 5
Benzene
Toluene
(a) (b) Benzene
Toluene
25 Ethylbenzene Ethylbenzene
m,p-Xylene 4 m,p-Xylene
Concentration, ppb

o-Xylene o-Xylene
Styrene Styrene
20
3

15

2
10

1
5

0 0
Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang
Monitoring site Monitoring site

Fig. 5 (a) Average concentrations of the six volatile organic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) for sample 3; (b) Average
day/night concentration ratio of the six volatile organic hazardous air pollutants for sample 3

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Environ Geochem Health

1986). Therefore, the observation that San-min have a higher concentration at night than during
had higher concentrations of the monitored spe- the day, which could be attributed to changes in
cies than the other sites could be primarily pollutant discharge rate during different working
attributed to transportation pollutant sources. shifts. The Nan-tz site is located near the Nan-tz
Furthermore, the average concentration ratio export processing zone, which is dominated by
of benzene to toluene was 0.45 in this study warehousing, transportation and related services,
(range of 0.3–0.6). Several studies (Sweet and precision machinery manufacturing, electronics
Vertmette 1992; Gee and Sollars 1998; Batterman and mechanics manufacturing, information
et al. 2002) conducted measurements of exposure services, and thus vehicular pollutants are
to ambient air from traffic emissions and obtained reduced at night.
a range of ratios of benzene to toluene of The day to night concentration ratio was 1.0 for
0.25–0.50. Results obtained in this study were benzene, 0.6 for toluene, 1.0 for ethylbenzene, 0.9
comparable to those from the literature and for m,p-xylene, and 1.0 for o-xylene and styrene
indicated that vehicle exhausts could be one of at Tso-ying. Besides naval military activities,
the major sources of these volatile organic HAPs pollutant sources for this site, located in the
in Kaohsiung city. residential-business mixed-use area and a subur-
ban area of Kaohsiung, come from peripheral
Average concentration ratio of day versus environmental pollution dispersal and vehicles.
night The day to night concentration ratio demon-
strated little variation and thus could be used as a
In this study, the 24-h monitoring program was on reference for assessing the major volatile organic
an hourly basis and lasted for two days. The HAPs in Kaohsiung city.
monitoring data were differentiated into day At the San-min site, the day to night concen-
(7:00–18:00) and night (19:00–06:00). The ratios tration ratio was 0.9 for benzene, 0.5 for toluene,
of day to night concentration for the monitored 1.4 for ethylbenzene, 0.9 for m,p-xylene, o-xylene,
volatile organic HAPs are shown in Fig. 6. and styrene. San-min district is an area of mixed
At Nan-tz, the day to night concentration ratio residential and commercial activities surrounded
was 1.1 for benzene, 0.7 for toluene, 1.7 for by automobile manufacturers, print works, and
ethylbenzene, and 0.9 for m,p-xylene and o-xy- dry-cleaning establishments. The area is crossed
lene, and 1.3 for styrene. The results showed that by major thoroughfares with heavy traffic during
benzene, ethylbenzene, and styrene all tended to the day and at night. The concentration ratio of

Fig. 6 Average 2.0

concentration ratio of day Benzene
Toluene
Day-time to night-time concentration ratio

to night for six volatile

Ethylbenzene
organic hazardous air m,p-Xylene
pollutants at the four 1.5 o-Xylene
monitoring sites Styrene

1.0

0.5

0.0
Nan-tz Tso-ying San-min Hsiao-kang
Monitoring site

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 Environ Geochem Health

benzene and toluene was approximately 0.5, Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank
indicating that motor vehicles could be one of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the Kaohsiung
city Government, Taiwan, ROC for financially
the major pollutant sources. supporting this research. We also thank the
The day to night concentration ratio was 1.1 for anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and
benzene, 0.8 for toluene, 1.2 for ethylbenzene, 1.0 corrections to the manuscript.
for m,p-xylene, 0.8 for o-xylene, 0.9 for styrene at
the Hsiao-kang site, which is situated near the
Hsiao-kang industrial zone, which mainly References
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