In order to understand the ambient air concentration of heavy metals in the vicinity of a solid waste incinerator in central Taiwan, a monitoring program was implemented. Samples were taken in March and July, 2005. The sampling site is located at southwest of incinerator and is 800 m from incinerator. The sampler was carried by a tethered balloon up to 150 meters height to take aerosol sample. Sampling was conducted by installing a personal cascade impactor at each 50 meter to take aerosol sample at that level . Then,the analysis of concentrations of 16 metal elements was performed. The results showed that Mg has the highest concentration than other elements. For the elements with toxic effect on human, such as Pb, Mn, Cr, As, and Cd, their concentrations were all below 0.1 μg/m3.
Characteristic size distributions allowed identification of three main behavioral type： 1.metal composition in fine particles constitute the major part of total particles. 2.at second sampling found Pb in 0、50、100 meters level height over 80%，respectively.3.in 100 meters element Al、Fe、Zn were higher than others.But element Pb、Mn、Ba、Ni、Cd in the 2μm aerodynamic size were found high concentrations in the ground.
The study makes use of factor analysis to qualitatively categorize potential pollution sources of ambient particulate matter.The PM2 might be influenced by the soil dust ,industry , and vehicular emissions;PM2-10 were connected to soil dust and industry emissions,PM10 to be related to soil dust,vehicular emissions.
Combining the results from characteristic size distributions and factor analysis, it suggests that results might be due to the different sources,such as soil dust,traffic and industy to influence the sampling area.
