Monitoring Particulate Matters and Total Suspended Particles Along the Roadside and Public Area in Phnom Penh

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the Total Suspended Particles (TSP) and Particulate Matter (PM) of the exposed area of vehicles emission along a boulevard (Russian Federation Boulevard/RFB) and public park (Wat Phnom Historical Park/WP) in Phnom Penh as a beneficial fact for passengers and tourists of air quality that they breathed in. This present study was carried out in 8 hours per sampling, twice a month, and 2 months long (March and April) of 2022 by using a high-volume sampler (HV, Shibata 500V) to determine TSP and Modified Nano-sampler (NS) to define PM (TSP/PM10/PM2.5/PM1/PM0.1). Conforming to the results, the highest percentage of relative humidity found during the sampling was when it rained (97.30%) and in the morning. Meanwhile, the lowest relative humidity was only about 48.70% which was during the hot afternoon. Additionally, TSP of RFB peak’s data was accounted as 234.04 μg/m3 which is beneath the standard of Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), 330 μg/m3. Nevertheless, the climax concentration of fine and ultrafine particles (PM2.5 and PM0.1) that wandered in the same area had surprisingly stood in an immensely high number as 95.56 and 38.04 μg/m3. To summarize, low level of TSP in the ambient atmosphere is not correlating to less pollution since the acquired results of PM2.5 and PM0.1 had detected in a dominant level that disturb the public health respiratory system. Same thing happened to WP which is a tree-based site as well.