INAA at the top of the world: elemental characterization and analysis of airborne particulate matter collected at Himalayas at 5,100 m high.

In 1990, following an agreement with the Royal Nepal Academy of Science, the Italian National Research Council (CNR) installed a scientific laboratory (Pyramid) at 5,050 m (s.l.) in the Himalayan region. Among the environmental related researches, the task project RATEAP (Remote Areas Trace Elements Atmospheric Pollution), started in 2001, aims at obtaining information about the chemical composition of the high altitude airborne particulate matter. During the period of March April 2002 series of samplings have been carried out by pump aspiration. Samples of total suspended particles (TSP) as well as of the particles size fraction PM10 and PM2.5 have been collected and submitted to INAA for the determination of more than 30 elements present at nanogram levels, in few micrograms of air dust. Data quality assurance has been performed by the analysis of different NIST SRMs and, in particular, the SRM 2783 Air Particulate on Filter Media.