Road traffic as an air pollutant contributor within an industrial park environment

Azliyana Azhari, Mohd Talib Latif, Ahmad Fariz Mohamed

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study aims to understand the relationship of the composition of pollutants and road traffic volume in an industrial environment. Two sampling stations were selected and samples were taken at two points, 1 m and 100 m from the roadside for each station, comparing a working day to a non-working day. The concentration of particulate matter with diameters of less than 10 μm (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) and the number of vehicle travelling the road on a site in an industrial area were monitored. The results show that the concentrations of pollutants at the sampling point 1 m from the roadside were significantly higher than at the sampling point 100 m from the roadside for PM10 and CO, while the opposite was observed for the concentration of O3 (p ≤.05). The levels PM10, CO and SO2 were significantly higher on a working day compared to a non-working day (p ≤.05). The number of vehicles on a working day and the concentration of PM10 and CO were significantly correlated with r = 0.62 and 0.81, while O3 showed a negative significant correlation r = −0.86 at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). The results demonstrate that the concentration of pollutants relates to the number of vehicles on the road and the distance from the road. Even though the selected sampling site is an industrial area, the majority of the pollutants detected were related to the road traffic activity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)680-687
Number of pages8
JournalAtmospheric Pollution Research
Volume9
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Industrial areas
  • Major air pollutants
  • Road side
  • Traffic emission

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