Assessment of air quality during 19th Common Wealth Games at Delhi, India

Abstract

The 19th Common Wealth Games was organized at Delhi, India, during October 3 to 14, 2010, where more than 8,000 athletes from 71 Commonwealth Nations have participated. In order to give them better environment information for proper preparedness, mass concentrations of particulate matters below 10 microns (PM10) and 2.5 microns (PM2.5), black carbon (BC) particles and gaseous pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxide (NO) were monitored and displayed online for ten different locations around Delhi, including inside and outside the stadiums. This extensive information system for air quality has been set up for the period from September 24 to October 21, 2010, and data have been archived at 5-min interval for further research. During the study period, average concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 was observed to be 229.7 ± 85.5 and 112.1 ± 56.0 μg m−3, respectively, which is far in excess of the corresponding annual averages, stipulated by the national ambient air quality standards. Significant large and positive correlation (r = 0.93) between PM10 and PM2.5 implies that variations in PM10 mass are governed by the variations in PM2.5 mass. The mass concentrations of PM2.5 inside the stadium were found to be ~18 % lower than those outside; however, no large variations were observed in PM10. Mean concentrations of BC, CO and NO for the observation period were 10.9 μg m−3 (Min, 02 μg m−3; Max, 31 μg m−3), 1.83 ± 0.89 ppm (Min, 0.48 ppm; Max, 4.55 ppm) and 37.82 ppb (Min, 2.4 ppb; Max, 206.05 ppb), respectively. BC showed positive correlation (r = 0.73) with CO suggests unified source for both of them, mainly from combustion emissions. All the measured parameters, however, show a significant diurnal variation with enhanced peaks in the morning and late night hours and lower values during daytime.