Air pollutant emissions from sugar mills and brick kilns: impact on environment and public health

Abstract

The atmosphere close to earth is composed of some major and several minor constituents in the form of gases having different concentrations. Certain substances, i.e., gases and radioactive materials, when disturbed by human activities, may produce undesirable effects on human habitat. The current studies were aimed to assess the concentrations of various constituents from sugar mills and brick kilns and their impact on environment. Seasonal data were recorded during crushing and non-crushing periods of sugar mills; however, brick kilns were operational during both periods. Random sampling was performed for air quality measurement of PM10, NOx, SO2, and data regarding human resource were collected through questionnaires. The results revealed that people exhibited symptoms of cough (26%), COPD (38%), ARI (53%) and hypertension (15.33%) during crushing period. Cough abnormalities expressed low values of 0.75 ± 0.044 and 0.32 ± 0.047 in affected and controlled areas, respectively. The PM10 concentration of 159.8 ± 1.4 and 17.7 ± 0.5 was observed in experimental areas. Systemic examination of children revealed that several children had wax in ear without any hearing abnormality, and normal BMI value was recorded as 18.80 ± 1.38 and 19.37 ± 1.35 for affected and controlled groups, respectively. It is concluded that PM10 concentration was considerable higher in ambient air than other pollutants. Brick kilns and sugar mills are the prime cause of ambient air pollution in urban areas. The environment protection agencies must keep check on new installation of these industries and also ensure proper disposing of their waste material.