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and particulates are introduced into atmosphere. Any matter in air that can, in
sufficient high concentration, damage humans, plants, animals, and other
resources. Such pollutants might be there as solid particles, liquid droplets, or
gases. It can also affect the quality of air and oxygen content of it by harming
other living organisms such as animals and vegetation.
Clean air is the basic right of every resident but in developing countries the air
pollution issue is taken as a challenging situation to be managed in urban areas.
There is a no doubt that industrial sources and vehicular pollution has greater
impacts on environment and destroyed air quality badly. For the production of
energy, burning of fossil fuels has increased and it dramatically leads the
problem of ambient air pollution in urban areas and poses serious health
disorders and diseases. Air pollution is increasingly considered as the main
cause of lung associated diseases such as throat irritation, lung cancer and
asthma; the recent rate of incidences is reported to be increased double as
compared to 30 years ago. (Abrar A., 2014)
Sulphur dioxide is released in the air from oil refineries and power stations.
Other source of its dispersal is domestic open fires upsetting the general
concentrations. Sulphur dioxide has a penetrating odor and is a colorless gas.
There are wide array of health and environmental impacts caused by sulphur
oxides, especially to susceptible groups adding people with asthma, the elderly,
and public with lung or heart disease. Large levels of SO2 in ambient air are
repeatedly accountable for causing the short-term breathing difficulty, asthma
attacks and enlarged respiratory symptoms (Abrar A., 2014).This is one of the
reasons for concern over the environmental impact of the use of these fuels as
power sources (SO2)
Atmospheric particulate matter (PM), or tiny particles, are fine particles of solid
or liquid suspended in a gas. In contrast, aerosol suggest to combined particles
and gas. Some particulates take place naturally, starting from volcanoes, forest,
dust storm and sea spray, grassland fires, living vegetation. Anthropogenic
activities, such as the combustion of fossil fuels in power plants, vehicles and
different industrial processes also produce large amounts of aerosols. Averaged
wide-reaching, anthropogenic aerosolsthat are an outcome of human
activitiesat present account for about 10 percent of our atmosphere. Health
hazards are also associated with the increasing levels of tiny particles.
Inadequately maintained vehicles become a main reason to more pollution
problems. Both acute and chronic effects on human health are apparent by the
release of these pollutants. CO lowers oxygen transporting ability of blood;
benzene pollutants are carcinogens whereas particulates and SO2 can cause
respiratory diseases like bronchitis, asthma.(UNEP, 2009).
The use of private cars in place of public transport which is increasing the
international number of cars by a factor of 10 since 1950 and levels of air
pollution are still getting higher. So, vehicular source is considered as the
biggest benefactor of air pollution. Urbanization is also increased by a factor 4
as it affects a large number of populations. (Samoli E., 2011) Current trends of
pollution from road traffic exhaust are referred as the important cause to affect
the urban air quality in regards of troposphere ozone production and human
health. (Abrar A., 2014)The Organ sulphates have been recognized and
quantified in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) collected in Lahore, Pakistan, in
2007 to 08. Increased diastolic blood pressure has been related with continuing
exposure to NO2 and PM2.5 in those children who used to live at the same place
since birth.
The PM2.5 levels have been beyond the NEQS in four provincial as well as
federal capitals of Pakistan Brick kilns on the outskirts of Lahore are also a
major point source of air pollution. A study of brick kilns in the Wahga and
Batapur areas of Lahore made known that the usual Bulls Trench Brick Kiln
are being used in Lahore, which comprises no control measures to manage the
air pollution. Modern brick manufacturing technologies such as vertical shaft
brick kiln must be introduced to control the air pollution (Rizwan Haider, 2016)
According to a report of WHO (2003) the urban air pollution affects the health
of people living in urban areas, the report regarded Pakistans road traffic as the
significant threat and increasing an average annual rate of 14.1% during the 20-
year period between 1985 to 2005.
Due to this concern, the dense areas are considered as hot spots for air pollution
problems. Air quality dispersion models serve as a valuable tool for assessing
the air quality against the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
and in decision making regarding the air pollution management. The pollutant
concentration in street mainly depends upon the traffic characteristics (type and
number of vehicles), city geometry, urban background concentration, and
meteorological parameters (wind speed and direction).
The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of road traffic on population
in one of the busiest areas in Lahore city i.e. Station Road, was chosen for the
study purpose to estimate the amount of (NOx, SOx, VOC, CO,O3 and heavy
metals ) in the ambient air.