Assessment of the ambient air quality at the Integrated Industrial Estate-Pantnagar through the air quality index (AQI) and exceedence factor (EF)

In the last few decades, global concerns have been raised about the health impacts caused by deterioration in the air quality mainly due to large-scale industrialization and urbanization. In order to assess the extent of impacts due to rapid industrialization and commercial activities at the Integrated Industrial Estate-Pantnagar (IIE-Pantnagar), the ambient air quality was continuously monitored from June 2007 to May 2008. The measured 24-h average criteria pollutants, namely, sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NO2), respirable suspended particulate matter (RPM) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) were used for the development of the air quality index (AQI). Among the monitored air quality variables, SPM revealed as the major pollutant followed by RPM with annual average concentrations of 281.8 and 137.6 mu g/m(3), respectively. However, the average concentrations of gaseous pollutants (SO2 and NO2) were 21.1 and 21.7 mu g/m(3) respectively, which were lower than the prescribed national standards. The computed AQI reveals a gradual increasing trend with a range of 48.02-79.25, signifying the prevalence of moderate to heavy pollution levels. A comparison of the exceedence factors (EFs) divulges that suspended and respirable particulate matters are the most significant polluting agents, causing maximum deterioration in the ambient air quality. (C) 2010 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.