SIZES OF AIRBORNE TRACE METAL CONTAINING PARTICLES.

A review of the literature has shown that detailed size data are available for several trace metals. Those metals having the greatest amount of information on size distributions include Pb, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn, each of which has been reported in at least 10 separate investigations. This chapter summarizes size distribution data from the literature for the above six metals. After the distributions are presented, several separate issues are discussed. First, the experimental techniques used to generate these distributions are reviewed to assess possible artifacts. Overall characteristics and consistencies in the spectra are then identified. Finally, as an example of the utility of the size data, the distributions are used with recently published information to estimate deposition in the human respiratory tract and dry deposition from the ambient atmosphere onto various surfaces.