The atmospheric aerosols, despite their tiny concentration in the air, have a relevant impact on a wide range of issues, spanning from the local to the global scale. Many epidemiologic studies on human exposures to ambient particulate matter have clearly established a statistically significant correlation between fineparticles concentration in the air and health effects. Moreover, increasing interest
originates by the role of aerosols in climate change, and in particular in global warming and changes in hydrological cycles. Nuclear techniques have been demonstrated to be an effective tool for aerosol study. In particular, the IBA (Ion Beam Analysis) techniques may allow the detection of all the elements present in the aerosol samples. Radiocarbon measurements, performed by AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry), can give fundamental information about the sources of the aerosol carbonaceous fraction. Without claiming to be exhaustive, a brief description of the role of these techniques in the aerosol study is given in the present paper, with a special attention to their applications at the INFN-LABEC laboratory of Florence
