This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Emissions from aircraft that use leaded aviation gasoline are a significant source of environmental pollution in neighborhoods near regional airports, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University and Portland State University. The findings were published in Communications Sustainability.
Lead levels were much higher near two Portland, Oregon–area regional airports than in urban areas farther away, and the dominant source of the lead is aviation fuel, said Alyssa Shiel, an environmental geochemist at Oregon State University and one of the study's corresponding authors. "While lead was phased out of motor vehicle gasoline decades ago, piston-engine aircraft—small planes such as single-engine trainers, light twin-engine planes, agricultural crop dusters and vintage warplanes—remain the largest remaining source of airborne lead emissions in the country," said Shiel, an associate professor in OSU's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. Lead is a highly toxic metal.
Children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, which can lead to developmental delays, difficulty learning and behavioral issues. Shiel has been studying heavy metal contaminants, including lead, for nearly a decade. She and Dean Atkinson, an atmospheric chemist and associate professor of chemistry at PSU, teamed up after they discovered they were both working on projects related to lead emissions at the Hillsboro, Oregon, airport.
"Tracking airborne lead near general aviation airports isn't simple," said Atkinson, also a corresponding author of the paper. "Alyssa brought expertise in heavy metal isotopic fingerprinting, and my focus was on atmospheric measurements and air quality. Together, we found a practical, low-cost way to show exactly where lead emissions are settling in local neighborhoods." Lead contamination at airports is well documented, but less is understood about how surrounding areas are affected by lead.
For the study, the researchers collected tree moss from neighborhoods near the Hillsboro and Troutdale, Oregon, airports—two of the top three lead emitters in Oregon—and measured lead levels. Moss acts as an effective air-monitoring system, absorbing contaminants directly from the surrounding air, Shiel explained. "Using moss as a natural sensor gives us a clear, ground-level picture of where airborne lead settles in nearby communities," Atkinson said.
The researchers then used a technique called isotopic fingerprinting to determine the source of the lead contamination. Different sources of lead, including leaded gasoline used by planes and leaded gas used by automobiles in the past, have distinct isotopic fingerprints. The researchers found lead levels as much as seven times higher near the airports than in moss in other areas of Portland, and the dominant local lead source was aviation fuel.
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