Long-term study of palladium in road tunnel dust and sewage sludge ash

The present work summarizes data about palladium contents of road tunnel dust from 1994 to 2007 and sewage sludge ash from 1972 to 2006. Since palladium is emitted from automotive catalytic converters as elemental particles, road dust is quiet useful to study traffic-related Pd emissions. Very high Pd values of up to 516 μg Pd kg⁻¹ were found in the road dust samples collected in 2007. Heavy metals of all urban emissions, also dental practice effluent, are enriched in sewage sludge ash and thus this matrix is useful for the documentation of palladium emission caused by the use of Pd alloys in dental medicine. In sewage sludge ash highest Pd contents of maximum 460 μg Pd kg⁻¹ were found in the years 1986-1997. In both matrices correlations of Pd content to Pd demand of industry are discussed.