Niveles de Partículas Suspendidas Totales (PST), PM10 y PM2.5 y su Relación en Lugares Públicos de la Ciudad Riohacha, Caribe Colombiano

The concentrations of total suspended particles (TSP) and particles with size below 10 and 2.5 micrometers (PM10 and PM2.5) in the urban area of the city of Riohacha in Colombia were determined. The instruments used were a high-volume sampler for TSP and PM10 and a low-volume sampler (Partisol) for PM2.5, all in six monitoring stations. The results showed that the average PM10 concentrations ranged from 43.69 to 19.47 µg/m3, the PST ranged from 86.02 to 27.38 µg/m3 and the average for PM2.5 was 14.57 µg/m3. Relations PM10/PST ranged from 0.50 to 0.68. The six stations showed good correlation PST/PM10 (R=0.795). The PST can imply the presence of PM10 particles in the urban area of this city but PM10 concentrations not necessarily indicate the presence of PM2.5 particles (R=0.035). The results for the correlation PM10/PST are similar to studies conducted in other urban areas of Colombia and of other countries.