Imperiling on Urban Environment by Air Pollution and its Impact on Human Health

Abstract

Present study was carried out to analyze the concentration of the pollutants due to air born particulate matter (PM10) and infectious trace gases and their effects on human health at ten different locations along busy intersections in the commercial, residential and industrial areas of Karachi city. At each selected location, the study was carried out to determine the level of particulate matter and trace gases for a period of 8 h twice in a month during the year 2015. Samples were collected at ten selected locations i.e. Karimabad(C-1), Tibet Centre(C-2), and Liaquatabad(C-3) in commercial areas; PIB Colony(R-1), Nazimabad(R-2) and Gulshan-e-Iqbal(R-3) in residential areas; Siemens G. Belt(I-E1), Naurus G Belt (I-E2), Singer Chowrangi(I-W3) and Chamra Chowrangi(I-W4) in industrial areas of the city. Resultsreceived from different air quality categories were calculated according to National Environmental Quality Standard (NEQS) at selected locations, as in commercial areas showing poor pollution level for trace gases and PM10 due to high traffic density. In Residential areas PIB Colony (R-1) and Gulshan-e-Iqbal (R-3), found under good category with respect to the trace gases and moderate pollution level for the PM10 pollution, having low traffic density whereas Nazimabad(R-2) presents moderate category for trace gases and unhealthy category for PM10 pollution with high traffic density. In industrial areas Singer Chowrangi (I-W3) and Chamra Chowrangi(I-W4) found under moderate pollution level with moderate traffic density, whereas, Siemens G. Belt(I-E1) and Naurus G. Belt(I-E2) locations are represented by moderate pollution values for trace gases and found under poor pollution level for PM10 pollution, may be due to industrial emissions and heavy vehicular emission. Level of PM10 and trace gases at all the selected sites excluding residential areas, exceeds the permissible limits as specified by NEQS.