Influence of New Year's fireworks on air quality - A case study from 2010 to 2021 in Augsburg, Germany

Fireworks have been shown to contribute short-term but potent source of ambient particulate matter (PM). Here we present a source apportionment-based approach to estimate the quantitative contributions of fireworks in releasing black carbon (eBC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and metals into urban ambient air on six New Year's Day fireworks events from the period 2010 to 2021. Simplified PMF analyses were performed to assign PAHs, eBCs, and metals to major contributors (building heating, traffic, and fireworks) of ambient PM. The trends of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations clearly showed the drastic increase of the concentrations on New Year's Days. The PMF analyses showed that, on average, about 35% (20-80% for individual years) of the PAHs and about 45% of eBC (10-100%) were associated with the fireworks. Metals presented in high concentrations in pyrotechnic sets, namely Ba, Cu, K, Mg, and Sr were attributed to fireworks about 90%, while Al was attributed to fireworks by 86%. Other metals (Ca, Cr, Fe, Na, Pb, Ti, and Zn) were attributed to fireworks by variable proportions averaging at 67%, 77%, 44%, 59%, 64%, 75%, and 33%, respectively. Overall, these findings complement future monitoring programs and regulations for fireworks emissions.