Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoon
Ambient particulate matter significantly impacts air quality, climate, and human health. In the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), home to nearly one-seventh of the global population, severe air pollution is prevalent with high PM2.5 levels dominated by organic aerosols (OA). However, the sources and format...
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Elsevier
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Environment International |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412025003344 |
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| author | Yufang Hao Jan Strähl Peeyush Khare Tianqu Cui Kristty Schneider-Beltran Lu Qi Dongyu Wang Jens Top Mihnea Surdu Deepika Bhattu Himadri Sekhar Bhowmik Pawan Vats Pragati Rai Varun Kumar Dilip Ganguly Sönke Szidat Gaëlle Uzu Jean-Luc Jaffrezo Rhabira Elazzouzi Neeraj Rastogi Jay Slowik Imad EI Haddad Sachchida Nand Tripathi André S.H. Prévôt Kaspar Rudolf Daellenbach |
| author_facet | Yufang Hao Jan Strähl Peeyush Khare Tianqu Cui Kristty Schneider-Beltran Lu Qi Dongyu Wang Jens Top Mihnea Surdu Deepika Bhattu Himadri Sekhar Bhowmik Pawan Vats Pragati Rai Varun Kumar Dilip Ganguly Sönke Szidat Gaëlle Uzu Jean-Luc Jaffrezo Rhabira Elazzouzi Neeraj Rastogi Jay Slowik Imad EI Haddad Sachchida Nand Tripathi André S.H. Prévôt Kaspar Rudolf Daellenbach |
| author_sort | Yufang Hao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ambient particulate matter significantly impacts air quality, climate, and human health. In the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), home to nearly one-seventh of the global population, severe air pollution is prevalent with high PM2.5 levels dominated by organic aerosols (OA). However, the sources and formation of OA pollution remain poorly constrained. For the first time, we characterize OA sources in two cities, Delhi and Kanpur in the IGP, over an entire year by combining near-molecular characterizations using an extractive electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (EESI-TOF) with advanced statistical approaches. We identified three key local biomass burning sources—affected by various fuels such as wood, straw, and cow dung—that had a more pronounced impact on Kanpur (66 %) compared to Delhi (35 %), particularly during colder months. Additionally, we identified transported agricultural fire emissions from Northwest India, which significantly contributed to OA during the post-monsoon rice harvest season, playing a critical role in haze formation. Acute mortality estimates indicated that while urban OA sources were substantial, rural crop residue burning posed a notable health risk during the post-monsoon, accounting for 32 % of PM2.5-attributable mortality in Delhi and 53 % in Kanpur. These results highlight the need for coordinated air pollution mitigation strategies that extend beyond urban centres to a regional scale, with a particular focus on crop residue management in Punjab to reduce the health burden of PM2.5 pollution in the IGP. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6e66c118b7b7445487cabca96ff5acbc |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 0160-4120 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environment International |
| spelling | doaj-art-6e66c118b7b7445487cabca96ff5acbc2025-08-20T02:37:05ZengElsevierEnvironment International0160-41202025-08-0120210958310.1016/j.envint.2025.109583Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoonYufang Hao0Jan Strähl1Peeyush Khare2Tianqu Cui3Kristty Schneider-Beltran4Lu Qi5Dongyu Wang6Jens Top7Mihnea Surdu8Deepika Bhattu9Himadri Sekhar Bhowmik10Pawan Vats11Pragati Rai12Varun Kumar13Dilip Ganguly14Sönke Szidat15Gaëlle Uzu16Jean-Luc Jaffrezo17Rhabira Elazzouzi18Neeraj Rastogi19Jay Slowik20Imad EI Haddad21Sachchida Nand Tripathi22André S.H. Prévôt23Kaspar Rudolf Daellenbach24PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland; Corresponding authors.Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bern 3012 Bern, Switzerland; Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandDepartment of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 208016, IndiaCentre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, IndiaPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandCentre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, IndiaDepartment of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bern 3012 Bern, Switzerland; Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, SwitzerlandUniversité Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, G-INP, UMR 5001 IGE, 38000 Grenoble, FranceUniversité Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, G-INP, UMR 5001 IGE, 38000 Grenoble, FranceUniversité Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, G-INP, UMR 5001 IGE, 38000 Grenoble, FranceGeosciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, IndiaPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, SwitzerlandDepartment of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 208016, IndiaPSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland; Corresponding authors.PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland; Corresponding authors.Ambient particulate matter significantly impacts air quality, climate, and human health. In the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), home to nearly one-seventh of the global population, severe air pollution is prevalent with high PM2.5 levels dominated by organic aerosols (OA). However, the sources and formation of OA pollution remain poorly constrained. For the first time, we characterize OA sources in two cities, Delhi and Kanpur in the IGP, over an entire year by combining near-molecular characterizations using an extractive electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (EESI-TOF) with advanced statistical approaches. We identified three key local biomass burning sources—affected by various fuels such as wood, straw, and cow dung—that had a more pronounced impact on Kanpur (66 %) compared to Delhi (35 %), particularly during colder months. Additionally, we identified transported agricultural fire emissions from Northwest India, which significantly contributed to OA during the post-monsoon rice harvest season, playing a critical role in haze formation. Acute mortality estimates indicated that while urban OA sources were substantial, rural crop residue burning posed a notable health risk during the post-monsoon, accounting for 32 % of PM2.5-attributable mortality in Delhi and 53 % in Kanpur. These results highlight the need for coordinated air pollution mitigation strategies that extend beyond urban centres to a regional scale, with a particular focus on crop residue management in Punjab to reduce the health burden of PM2.5 pollution in the IGP.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412025003344Organic aerosolSource apportionmentMolecular characterizationBiomass burning |
| spellingShingle | Yufang Hao Jan Strähl Peeyush Khare Tianqu Cui Kristty Schneider-Beltran Lu Qi Dongyu Wang Jens Top Mihnea Surdu Deepika Bhattu Himadri Sekhar Bhowmik Pawan Vats Pragati Rai Varun Kumar Dilip Ganguly Sönke Szidat Gaëlle Uzu Jean-Luc Jaffrezo Rhabira Elazzouzi Neeraj Rastogi Jay Slowik Imad EI Haddad Sachchida Nand Tripathi André S.H. Prévôt Kaspar Rudolf Daellenbach Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoon Environment International Organic aerosol Source apportionment Molecular characterization Biomass burning |
| title | Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoon |
| title_full | Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoon |
| title_fullStr | Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoon |
| title_full_unstemmed | Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoon |
| title_short | Transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern Indian cities during post-monsoon |
| title_sort | transported smoke from crop residue burning as the major source of organic aerosol and health risks in northern indian cities during post monsoon |
| topic | Organic aerosol Source apportionment Molecular characterization Biomass burning |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412025003344 |
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