The human health risk of NPAHs and PAHs was evaluated using a lifetime carcinogenic risk assessment model. The carcinogenic risk level of the targets ranged from 2.09 × 10-7 to 5.75 × 10-5 and some surface water samples posed a potential health risk.The chemical characteristics, oxidative potential, and sources of PM2.5 were analyzed at the urban sites of Lahore and Peshawar, Pakistan in February 2019. Carbonaceous species, water soluble ions, and metal elements were measured to investigate the chemical composition and sources of PM2.5. The dithiothreitol (DTT) consumption rate was measured to evaluate the oxidative potential of PM2.5. Both cities showed a high exposure risk of PM2.5 regarding its oxidative potential (DTTv). Carbonaceous and some of the elemental species of PM2.5 correlated well with DTTv in both Lahore and Peshawar. Besides, the DTTv of PM2.5 in Lahore showed significant positive correlation with most of the measured water soluble ions, however, ions were DTT-inactive in Peshawar. Due to the higher proportions of carbonaceous species and metal elements, Peshawar showed higher mass-normalized DTT activity of PM2.5 compared to Lahore although the average PM2.5 concentration in Peshawar was lower. The high concentrations of toxic metals also posed serious non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to the residents of both cities. Principle component analysis coupled with multiple linear regression was applied to investigate different source contributions to PM2.5 and its oxidative potential. Mixed sources of traffic and road dust resuspension and coal combustion, direct vehicle emission, and biomass burning and formation of secondary aerosol were identified as the major sources of PM2.5 in both cities. The findings of this study provide important data for evaluation of the potential health risks of PM2.5 and for formulation of efficient control strategies in major cities of Pakistan.This work aims to provide a methodology framework which allows to improve the performance and efficiency of an air quality monitoring network (AQMN). It requires to be constituted by a minimum and reliable number of measurement sites. Nevertheless, the AQMN efficiency should be assessed over time, as a consequence of the possible emergence of new emission sources of air pollutants, which could lead to variations on their spatial distribution within the target area. PM10 particles data monitored by the Community of Madrid's (Spain) AQMN between 2008 and 2017 were used to develop a methodology to optimize the AQMN performance. The annual spatial distribution of average PM10 levels over the studied period monitored by all current stations vs those more representative was provided by a geographic information system (GIS), and the percentage of similarity between both postulates was quantified using simple linear regression (> 95%). As one innovative tool of this study, the practical application of the proposed methodology was validated using PM10 particles data measured by AQMN during 2007 and 2018, reaching a similitude degree higher than 95%. The influence of temporal variation on the proposed methodological framework was around 20%. The proposed methodology sets criteria for identifying non-redundant stations within AQMN, it is also able to appropriately assess the representativeness of fixed monitoring sites within an AQMN and it complements the guidelines set by European legislation on air pollutants monitoring at fixed stations, which could help to tackle efforts to improve the air quality management.To better understand the characteristics and transformation mechanisms of secondary inorganic aerosols, hourly mass concentrations of water-soluble inorganic ions (WSIIs) in PM2.5 and their gaseous precursors were measured online from 2016 to 2018 at an urban site in Beijing. Seasonal and diurnal variations in water-soluble ions and gaseous precursors were discussed and their gas-particle conversion and partitioning were also examined, some related parameters were characterized. The (TNH3) Rich was also defined to describe the variations of the excess NH3 in different seasons.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/iwr-1-endo.html  In addition, a sensitivity test was carried out by using ISORROPIA II to outline the driving factors of gas-particle partitioning. In Beijing, the relative contribution of nitrate to PM2.5 has increased markedly in recent years, especially under polluted conditions. In the four seasons, only a small portion of NO2 in the atmosphere was converted into total nitrate (TNO3), and more than 80% of TNO3 occurred in the form of nitrate due to the abundant ammonia. The concentration of total ammonia (TNH3) was much higher than that required to neutralize acid gases, and most of the TNH3 occurred as gaseous NH3. The nitrous acid (HONO) concentration was highly correlated with NH3 concentration and had increased significantly in Beijing compared with previous studies. The total chloride (TCl) was the highest in winter, and ε(Cl-) was more sensitive to variations in the ambient temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) than ε(NO3-).To control the spread of COVID-19, rigorous restrictions have been implemented in China, resulting in a great reduction in pollutant emissions. In this study, we evaluated the air quality in the Yangtze River Delta during the COVID-19 lockdown period using satellite and ground-based data, including particle matter (PM), trace gases, water-soluble ions (WSIs) and black carbon (BC). We found that the impacts of lockdown policy on air quality cannot be accurately assessed using MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) data, whereas the tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) vertical column density can well reflect the influences of these restrictions on human activities. Compared to the pre-COVID period, the PM2.5, PM10, NO2, carbon monoxide (CO), BC and WSIs during the lockdown in Suzhou were observed to decrease by 37.2%, 38.3%, 64.5%, 26.1%, 53.3% and 58.6%, respectively, while the sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3) increased by 1.5% and 104.7%. The WSIs ranked in the order of NO3- > NH4+ > SO42- > Cl- > Ca2+ > K+ > Mg2+ > Na+ during the lockdown period. By comparisons with the ion concentrations during the pre-COVID period, we found that the ions NO3-, NH4+, SO42-, Cl-, Ca2+, K+ and Na+ decreased by 66.3%, 48.8%, 52.9%, 56.9%, 57.9% and 76.3%, respectively, during the lockdown, in contrast to Mg2+, which increased by 30.2%. The lockdown policy was found to have great impacts on the diurnal variations of Cl-, SO42-, Na+ and Ca2+.