The international journal of Aerosol and Air Quality Research (AAQR) covers all aspects of aerosol science and technology, atmospheric science and air quality related issues.

The tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) is one type of continuous ambient particulate matter (PM) monitor. Adsorption and desorption of moisture and semivolatile species may cause positive or negative artifacts in TEOM PM mass measurement. The objective of this field study was to investigate possible uncertainties associated with TEOM measurements in the poultry operation environment. For comparisons of TEOM with filter-based gravimetric method, four instruments (TEOM-PM₁₀, low-volume PM₁₀ sampler, TEOM-PM_2.5, and PM_2.5 speciation sampler) were collocated and tested inside a poultry house for PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ (PM with aerodynamic equivalent diameter ≤2.5 and ≤10 μm, respectively) measurements. Fifteen sets of 24-hr PM₁₀ concentrations and 13 sets of 24-hr PM_2.5 measurements were obtained. Results indicate that compared with filter-based gravimetric method, TEOM gave significantly lower values of both PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 mass concentrations. For PM₁₀, the average ratio of TEOM to the gravimetric method was 0.936. For PM_2.5, the average ratio of TEOM to the gravimetric method was 0.738. Particulate matter in the poultry houses possibly contains semivolatile compounds and moisture due to high levels of relative humidity (RH) and gas pollutants. The internal heating mechanism of the TEOM may cause losses in mass through volatilization. To investigate the effects of TEOM settings on concentration measurements, the heaters of two identical TEOMs were set at 50 °C, 30 °C, or no heating at all. They were collocated and tested for total suspended particle (TSP), PM₁₀, and PM_2.5 measurements in layer house for 6 weeks. For all TSP, PM₁₀, and PM_2.5 measurements, the internal TEOM temperature setting had a significant effect (P < 0.05). Significantly higher PM mass concentrations were measured at lower temperature settings. The effects of environmental (i.e., temperature, RH, NH₃ and CO₂ concentrations) and instrumental (i.e., filter loading and noise) parameters on PM measurements were also assessed using regression analysis.

The international journal of Aerosol and Air Quality Research (AAQR) covers all aspects of aerosol science and technology, atmospheric science and air quality related issues.