Seasonal and regional variation of particulate matter dispersion in Yangon City and Taunggyi City, Myanmar

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) pollution is well-known to be associated with hazardous health outcomes. Data on the PM concentrations in Myanmar are, however, limited. Since, it is very important to determine the air pollution status for further prevention of PM-related health risks in exposed populations, we conducted this preliminary study to assess the PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in Yangon and Taunggyi Cities during the dry and wet seasons. The PM measurements were made by mobile sensing using Pocket PM2.5 Sensors (Yaguchi Electric Co., Ltd., Miyagi, Japan) in six randomly selected townships of Yangon from January 25th-29th 2018 (dry season) and September 15th-19th 2018 (wet season) and seven quarters (townships are termed as quarters in Taunggyi) of Taunggyi from July 19th-22nd 2018 (wet season). The findings revealed that the PM concentrations in Yangon were significantly higher in the dry season than in the wet season. In the wet season, the PM levels in Yangon dropped to the WHO guideline. However, while the PM10 levels were higher in Taunggyi than in Yangon, the PM2.5 concentrations were significantly higher in Yangon than in Taunggyi. The highest PM levels were found in the Hlaing Tharyar township of Yangon and Myo-ma quarter of Taunggyi among the measured locations. In conclusion, our findings indicated significant seasonal variations in the PM concentrations in Yangon and significant regional variations between the two cities within the same season.