Abstract
The UNEP report of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) inventories points out that the available number of national PCDD/Fs emission inventory is limited. The major sectors of PCDD/Fs release into the air were identified. Nevertheless, there are still un-identified PCDD/Fs sources . As part of our effort to estimate the Taiwan dioxin and furan inventory, we measured the PCDD/Fs concentrations in the ambient air during the FonPau festival in order to investigate whether the proliferation of firecrackers might produce a measurable increase in PCDD/Fs emissions.The formation of thermally produced PCDD/Fs has been extensively studied. The reduction and elimination of PCDD/Fs can be achieved by optimizing the incinerating parameters and using air pollution control devices . However, certain thermal process such as fire accident, which is not controllable and releases unknown amount of PCDD/Fs. The study of PCDD/Fs in fire accidents is prevalent among researches, for example PVC-fire, house fire, vehicle fire, open-door incineration and municipal waste landfill fire. In November 2001, a fire accident occurred in a private residence and spread to the neighboring pesticide factory in Hsinchu city, Taiwan. A building next to the pesticide factory was heavily smoked during the fire. In this study, we collected and analyzed PCDD/Fs levels in wipe and ash samples from the scene of the fire. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to compare the PCDD/Fs distribution and to investigate the characteristic of the fire.