STATUS OF AIR QUALITY AND NOISE LEVEL WITH ASSOCIATED HEALTH RISK VICINITY TO SHIPBREAKING YARDS OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

Shipbreaking industry has turned out to be dominant sector in Bangladesh without considering the environmental issues. However, to date, extremely limited studies have been performed to monitor the air and noise level around shipbreaking sites of Bangladesh. This study is conducted to assess the air and noise level with associated health risk vicinity to selected shipbreaking areas of the country. Herein, data on various air pollutants, noise level, and meteorological factors were collected from six prominent shipbreaking yards in Chattogram. Findings of the research work revealed that some air quality parameters and noise level adjacent to shipbreaking areas are exceeded the permissible level set by the WHO. The values of Air Quality Index (AQI) is found in the unhealthy category for human health perspective. The average noise level was also recorded beyond the permissible limit in every sampling sites, following descending order: S3 > S4 > S5 > S6 > S1 > S2. From the statistical analysis, the authors explored that there are significant correlation with poor to strong (0.0.026 to 0.97) among the climatic parameters and air pollutants. Both particulate matters and AQI demonstrate a moderate correlation with the meteorological parameters (humidity and wind speed), and gaseous air pollutants (CO2 and TVOC) also have considerable correlations. The moderate correlation between AQI and noise level is also observed in this study. The authors recommended for effective control actions to alleviate the detrimental environmental pollution arises due to the consequences of shipbreaking activities for ensuring health safety of workers.