Introduction: The concentrations of trace metals, ionic species, and carbonaceous components in PM(10) (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 10 µm) were measured from samples collected near an industrial complex, primarily composed of cement plants, in southeastern Spain, from September 2005 to August 2006.
Materials and methods: Positive matrix factorization and conditional probability function were applied to this data set to identify different types of sources.
Results: Six significant sources were identified: crustal matter, traffic, aged sea salt, industrial emissions, secondary aerosol, and sea salt. The difficulty of separating anthropogenic sources from those of natural origin is highlighted in this study; in particular, the crustal source can be connected with both natural (African outbreaks, wind resuspension) and man-made emissions, like fugitive emissions in an industrial environment.