Hourly elemental composition and source identification of fine and coarse PM10 in an Italian urban area stressed by many industrial activities

A project is in progress to study the environmental problems of Taranto, an industrial town in the South of Italy. Within this framework we studied the atmospheric aerosol composition by means of continuous sampling and PIXE measurements. Particulate matter (PM) was collected simultaneously in two sampling sites during winter and summer 2004 by two streaker samplers, which separate the fine and coarse aerosol modes. Hourly concentrations of elements from Na to Pb were measured at the new 3 MV Tandetron accelerator of the LABEC laboratory of INFN in Florence.