Ambient Air Quality of an Industrial Estate-Mandi Gobindgarh

Abstract

With an increased pace of industrialization especially in developing countries, environmental problems have also increased. At the same time, with growing population and economic development, there has been a rapid rise in air pollution sources. Due to this, a number of pollutants are released in the ambient air deteriorating its quality. The health effects caused by air pollution may include difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing and aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions. The project investigates the concentration of the pollutants PM 10, PM 2.5, Sulphur Dioxide, and Nitrogen Dioxide from various sources like automobiles, industries over the ambient air quality of the Mandi Gobindgarh, As it is one of the 24 critically polluted area identified by CPCB so selected for the study. 11 sampling sites were selected including 7 industrial, 2 residential, 1 agricultural within the study area on the basis of different parameters like population density, meterological data, industrial clusters identified by PPCB. With the help of meterological data, Windroses and impact area diagrams were plotted. Impact area for a period of 12 month was also calculated to know dilution factor of pollutants over the study period. At each site all 4 pollutants were monitored twice a week using PM 2.5/10 sampler for particulates and High volume Sampler with gaseous attachment for SO2 and NO2. PTFE filters of 47mm diameter and whatman filters of diameter 37mm were used for collection particulates of diameter less than 2.5um whereas whatmman filters of diameter 47mm were used for PM 10. For SO2 sampling, H2O2 was used as an absorbing solution whereas solution of Sodium Hydroxide and Sodium Arsenite was used for NO2 sampling. In order to calculate the level of pollutants in air, Air Quality Index (AQI) was calculated by using methodology suggested by CPCB, on the basis of concentrations of different pollutants within the studied area. AQI was calculated for each site to know the area with worst air quality which was found to be site near village Kumbh, Amloh road. Pollutant responsible for this AQI was found to be PM 10. Sites at GT road, Talwara road, Prem Nagar were also found to be critically polluted. Overall AQI was also calculated on the basis of two different methodology, named as IND-AQI, USEPA-AQI. The results demonstrated that the AQI level measured within the studied area comes under ‘Very Poor’ category which reflects that the impact of pollutant on human health is at extreme level. Ratio of SO2/NO2 was also calculated to observe the impact of vehicles on to air pollution. Least impact of moving vehicle was found to be at Talwara road means air quality there was mainly due to industrial emissions.