Problem of air formaldehyde content analysis and source identification (evidence from Chelyabinsk)

The paper discusses the problem of controlling the formaldehyde content in the atmospheric air of an industrial city and identifying sources of elevated concentrations of formaldehyde, from the evidence of a typical industrial Russian city of Chelyabinsk. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, formaldehyde is classified among substances that have carcinogenic and toxic properties even at low concentrations. Currently, there are several methods for determining ultra-low concentrations of formaldehyde in atmospheric air. Standard procedure, based on the method of high-performance liquid chromatography, is laborious and expensive; it does not provide for determination of the average daily concentrations of the substance. According to the data of the state monitoring of the environmental air of Chelyabinsk, in recent years the content of formaldehyde has an increasing tendency. At the same time, primary formaldehyde emissions are insignificant, so they cannot explain the observed high concentrations. This being said, there are numerous sources of secondary formaldehyde, both natural and technological in nature. This necessitates the development of a software and hardware complex (SHC) for the determination of ultra-low concentrations of formaldehyde in continuous automatic mode, as well as identification of its sources. Visualization of simulated surface concentrations of formaldehyde with the help of this SHC will be carried out in relation to the urban framework of the city, taking into account emissions of motor vehicles, industrial enterprises, the kinetics of photochemical reactions and current weather conditions in the real time mode. The complex has no analogues in Russia and is an import-substituting product. Potential users of the SHC are Federal Services for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring and Supervision of Natural Resources, environmental services of industrial enterprises and cities that have stationary and mobile monitoring posts for the state of atmospheric air.