Assessment of ambient air quality of Lucknow city during pre-monsoon: findings of a random survey
The study was carried out during the months of April-May, 2017 to assess the status of air quality by monitoring and assessment of some selected air pollutants namely Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM or PM10), Fine particles (PM2.5), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and trace metals-Lead (Pb) and Nickel (Ni)and noise level at 9 representative locations, categorized as residential (four), commercial (four) and industrial (one) areas in Lucknow city. The results revealed the 24 hours concentration of PM10 to be in the range of 140.5 to 310.6 μg/m3 with an average of 222.8 μg/m3. The 24 hours concentration of PM2.5 was found to be in the range of 66.7 to 169.0 μg/m3 with an average of 109.4 μg/m3. The average values of PM10 and PM2.5 irrespective of locations were found to be above the permissible limit (100 μg/m3 for PM10 and 60 μg/m3 for PM2.5 prescribed by MoEF). Twenty four hours concentration of SO2 and NOx were found to be in the range of 6.8 to 16.7 and 25.7 to 97.8 μg/m3 with an average concentration of 11.7 and 49.7 μg/m3 respectively and all the values were below the permissible limits (80 μg/m3). The mean level of trace metals were Pb = 219.97 and Ni = 48.34 ng/m3. Noise levels during day and night time were found to be in the range of 65.8 to 81.4 dB (A) and 56.3 to 67.4 dB (A) respectively which was above the respective permissible limits except in industrial area.