Time trends in the concentrations of lead in wet precipitation from rural and urban sites in Austria

Trend and time series analysis of concentrations of lead in wet precipitation at different rural and urban sampling sites in Austria, collected during intervals of 6 - 12 years (between 1984 and 1995) is performed. A substantial decrease of the lead concentrations for all sites in consideration is observed similar to observations in Germany, Sweden and North sea and western Atlantic regions. Reductions in rural sites between 60 and 80 % in 10 years and around 90 % in 10 years in urban areas are found. This trend correlates with the reduction of lead emissions from combustion of gasoline. The seasonal deconvolution model of the data set reveals a typical seasonality with lead concentration peaks in summer and spring for the rural sites and winter peaks for urban sites. The average annual lead concentration in the rural region for 1995 was 1.25 mu g/l, in the urban region 2.25 mu g/l. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.