Abstract
ABSTRACTKandy is the second largest city in Sri Lanka and a major tourist destination. It is a fast growing city with continuous construction of buildings, roads and historical places. More than 100 samples of fine particulate matter (PM) were collected using a GENT stacked filter sampler from a fixed site at the regional sampling station of Department of Meteorology situated in Katugastota, Kandy over the period of 2012 to 2014. Black carbon (BC) in these filters were determined by reflectance measurements while their elemental compositions were determined using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Analysis of the elemental data suggests that the PM in Kandy originates largely from re-suspended soil and anthropogenic sources. The fine particulate matter data including BC and major elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Cl, Fe, Zn, Ni, Cu, V, S, Br, Pb, Cr, K, Ca and Ti) was analyzed using EPA-PMF version 5.0 (Positive Matrix Factorization) to explore the possible sources of the PM at the study site. Five factors were found and identified as soil, aged sea salt, vehicular emissions, biomass burning, and industrial sources.
Highlights
Epidemiological studies have found that air pollution has significant adverse health and visibility effects in the high population cities (Dockery et al, 1993, UNEP, 2002; Katsouyanni, 2005)
More than 100 samples of fine particulate matter (PM) were collected using a GENT stacked filter sampler from a fixed site at the regional sampling station of Department of Meteorology situated in Katugastota, Kandy over the period of 2012 to 2014
Black carbon (BC) in these filters were determined by reflectance measurements while their elemental compositions were determined using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometry
Summary
Epidemiological studies have found that air pollution has significant adverse health and visibility effects in the high population cities (Dockery et al, 1993, UNEP, 2002; Katsouyanni, 2005). Many countries have instituted air quality standards that set maximum allowable concentrations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency promulgated an airborne particulate matter (PM) in the < 2.5 μm size (PM2.5) standard of 12 μg m–3 for annual average and 35 μg m–3 for 24-hr maximum in 2012. In Australia, the PM2.5 goals are 8 μg m–3 for annual average and 25 μg m–3 for 24-hr maximum. Sri Lanka has a fine PM2.5 permissible level of 25 μg m–3 for the annual average and 50 μg m–3 for a 24 hr maximum. For many locations, very few measurements have been made or presented in the scientific literature
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