It is only possible to compare the nitroaromatic compound concentration data determined for SPA samples with a few studies performed at European sites that are impacted by domestic wood burning during winter. Samples collected from a rural village in Germany in the autumn-winter of 2007e2008 showed an average concentration of 5.2 ng m3 for the sum of the MNCs, which is lower than the average values of 16.3 ng m3 and 28 ng m3 found for the 2012 and 2013 samples from SPA (Iinuma et al., 2010). PM10 samples collected from an urban background location during a 2011 winter episode in Ljubljana, Slovenia, exhibited mean concentrations for 4NC and the sum of the MNCs of 76 ng m3 and 70 ng m3, representing 0.39% and 0.36% of the OC mass (Kitanovski et al., 2012b). PM10 samples collected from Hamme, a rural site in Belgium, during 2010e2011 winter, showed mean concentrations for 4NC and the sum of the MNCs of 14.2 ng m3 and 19.5 ng m3, representing 0.22% and 0.30% of the OC mass (Kahnt et al., 2013).The percentage contributions obtained for the winter samples from Belgium and Slovenia are higher than the values of 0.094 and 0.102% and of 0.133 and 0.117% found for the 2012 and 2013 SPA samples in the present study, suggesting that sugarcane burning
results in a relatively lower SOA formation from emitted aromatic compounds.