148 Int. J. Environment and Health, Vol. 5, Nos. 1/2, 2011 Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Atmospheric chemical element pollution in an urban water-associated environment Elvis Joacir De França* Centro Regional de Ciências Nucleares do Nordeste, Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear, Avenida Prof. Luiz Freire, 200, Cidade Universitária, 51740-540 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil and Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo, Praça do Oceanográfico, 191, 05508-120 São Paulo, Brazil Email: ejfranca@cnen.gov.br *Corresponding author Leandro Camilli, Elisabete A. De Nadai Fernandes, Camila Elias, Vanessa Santos Rodrigues, Isabel Pires de Oliveira Cavalca, Felipe Yamada Fonseca and Claudiney Bardini Jr. Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Universidade de São Paulo, Piracicaba, P.O. Box 97, 13416-970, Brazil Email: le_camilli@yahoo.com.br Email: lis@cena.usp.br Email: celias@cena.usp.br Email: vanessa.santos.rodrigues@usp.br Email: isabel.cavalca@usp.br Email: fyfonseca@cena.usp.br Email: cbardini@cena.usp.br Abstract: Nowadays, sustainability has become a complicated issue mainly in urban centres. Owing to the atmospheric emissions, the incorporation of toxic chemical elements is still not well known for urban water-associated ecosystems. Tillandsia bromeliads were employed as passive biomonitors of air pollution. Otherwise, the tank bromeliad Canistropsis billbergioides, native to the Atlantic Forest, was employed for assessing pollution levels since the tank, unlike atmospheric epiphytes, also accumulates chemical elements from water and litterfall. The present study aimed at using leaves of the native epiphytic bromeliads (passive biomonitoring) from riparian areas and the species C. billbergioides (active) to evaluate the atmospheric input of chemical elements for wet ecosystems from the Piracicaba City, São Paulo State, Brazil.