Assessment of particulate matter (PM) in ambient air of different settings and its associated health risk in Haripur city, Pakistan.

N Afshan,A Tabassum,A Naz,K Asghar,N Aurangzeb,S.G Nadeem,M Hussain,N Usman,S.T Hakim,M Amin,S Bashir,G Raza,A Ali

doi:10.1590/1519-6984.256190

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) is a major air pollutant causing serious health problems. The aim of the present study was to find out concentration of PM in ambient air and its associated health risk in Haripur city, Pakistan. Twenty-three samples were taken at various educational institutes, hospitals, recreational areas and industries in Haripur city. Concentration of PM2.5 (µg/m3) and PM10 (µg/m3) was measured with Youngteng YT-HPC 3000A portable PM counter. The results revealed that values of both PM2.5 and PM10 were above the permissible limits (35 µg/m3 for PM2.5 and 150 µg/m3 for PM10) set by Environmental Protection Agency Pakistan (Pak-EPA) in all the educational institutes, hospitals, recreational areas and industries investigated. Furthermore, significant (p<0.05) variation was found in the concentration of both PM2.5 and PM10 in all the educational institutes, hospitals, recreational areas, and industries studied. The concentration of PM2.5 was positively correlated with the concentration of PM10 in all the sampling sites. Therefore, from 1-14 scale standard of health index, the values of PM2.5 and PM10 exhibited that the ambient air quality of Haripur city Pakistan is under high risk. If the regulatory authorities such as Environmental Protection Agency, Health Department and Local Government monitor PM pollution in different settings of Haripur city, then a decrease can be possible in the pollution level. The remedies that can be taken to overcome the problem of ambient air pollution such as PM are plantation of trees at the sites where there are higher levels of air pollutants and use of masks on personal protection basis along with implementation of pollution control system in industries of Hattar Industrial Estate Haripur city, Pakistan.

Highlights

Ambient air quality is one of the main elements to check pollution level in the environment
The present study found out that there were heavy concentrations of particulate matter (PM) of both fractions PM2.5 and PM10 present in the air of different settings of Haripur city, Pakistan
The sources of PM at all the sampling points were due to the anthropogenic activities like traffic, walking and playing activities in schools, hospitals, recreational areas and the industrial pollution

Summary

Introduction

Ambient air quality is one of the main elements to check pollution level in the environment. Fast rate of industrialization has been causing higher emissions of many gases and particulate matter (PM) (Cesaroni et al, 2014). These pollutants are the primary pollutants and transformed into secondary pollutants through chemical reactions. Ambient air pollution (AAP) is the global issue concerned to human health. All the non-CO2 emissions are the climate-alerting pollutants that caused severe health impacts declared by IPCC and many other organizations (Stafoggia et al, 2014). The health impacts are either direct or indirect in urban areas (Akinfolarin et al, 2017; Alam et al, 2015; Ali et al, 2015). PM cause various diseases such as perpetual bronchitis, lungs disturbance, asthma, incessant hack, rhinitis, mucus generation, exhaustion, migraine, lung malignant growth, hypersensitivity, sudden passing and diminished protection from respiratory contamination, distinctive aspiratory sicknesses, for example, shortness of breath, regular cold, hack, wheezing, asthma assaults, throat blockage and respiratory aggravations (Nagar et al, 2014; Mehmood et al, 2015)

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