Investigation on the concentration of the total suspended particles and heavy metals in Ahvaz ambient air compared with permissible levels

authors:

avatar Seyyed Ali akbar Jafary Mosavy 1 , * , avatar Zahra Sheykhi 2 , avatar Mohammad Sadegh Sekhavtjou 2 , avatar Afshin Takdastan 1

Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran
Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch , Ahvaz, IR Iran

how to cite: Jafary Mosavy S A A, Sheykhi Z, Sekhavtjou M S, Takdastan A. Investigation on the concentration of the total suspended particles and heavy metals in Ahvaz ambient air compared with permissible levels. Jundishapur J Health Sci. 2011;3(2):e94249. 

Abstract

Air pollution in industrial and urban areas is one of the most important problems of environment which endangers humans' health; an example of these pollutants is the suspended particles in the air that with the increase of 10 in the air, the rate of mortality increases by 1 to 3 precent.
This study was done during three seasons by determining ten sampling stations in each season and according to ASTM D: 4096 method. In this study air samples (30 samples) were collected by vallum pumps, by using 810 inches fibreglass filter in 24 hours and by installing the plant in the height of 3m. The total suspended collected particles were determined after weighing by the help of mathematics formula, also the amount of heavy metals were extracted by acidic digestion; analysed by the ICP set and determined by Pearson statistics test.
The results show that the average of suspended particles in winter is 426.6, in autumn 471.3, and in spring 871.8 respectively and have the minimum to maximum of the pollution amount. Also the average of heavy metals including iron, plumb, cadmium, vanadium and nickel were 2.4, 0.116, 0.0199, 0.075, 0.059 respectively.
24 hour comparison of density of pollutants in various seasons reveals that the amount of suspended particles and heavy metals like iron, cadmium, vanadium and nickel in autumn, winter and spring are higher than the standards of WHO and only the amount of plumb was according to standards of WHO.

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References

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