Increased economic growth, urbanisation and substantial rise in automobile vehicles has contributed towards the elevated
levels of air pollution in major cities in Pakistan. Aone week study was conducted by using passive samplers to assess
NO2 concentration in occupational built environments at two most congested and populated sites of Lahore. Both sites
were locatedon the busy roads of Lahore. At Site-I the highest concentration was in outdoors followed by corridor and
indoor. While at Site II all the sampling location wereindoors and level were comparable to that of outdoor levelsat Site
I. The results suggest the likely contribution of ambient sources in exposure to indoor NO2 in educational and other
occupational built environments in urban centres

Afzal, F.

Ali, Z.

Andleeb, S.

Colbeck, Ian

Mehmood, T.

Nasir, Zaheer A.

Noor, N.

Rasheed, F.

Razzaq, A. A.

The Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences

English

Cranfield CERES

Proceedings of The National Conference and Training Workshop “Wildlife and Aerobiology” held on February 6-7, 2015 Lahore, Pakistan656EXPOSURE TO NO2 IN OCCUPATIONALBUILT ENVIRONMNETS IN URBAN CENTREIN LAHORES. Andleeb1, Z. Ali2*,F. Afzal1, A. A. Razzaq1, T. Mehmood2, N. Noor2, F. Rasheed3, Z. A. Nasir4,5 and I. Colbeck51Government Islamia College for Women, Cooper Road Lahore, Pakistan2Environmental Health and Wildlife, Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore- Pakistan3Department of Zoology, Lahore College of Women University, Lahore- Pakistan4School of Energy, Environment and Agrifood, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK5School of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK*Corresponding Author’s Email: zali.zool@pu.edu.pkABSTRACTIncreased economic growth, urbanisation and substantial rise in automobile vehicles has contributed towards the elevatedlevels of air pollution in major cities in Pakistan. Aone week study was conducted by using passive samplers to assessNO2 concentration in occupational built environments at two most congested and populated sites of Lahore. Both siteswere locatedon the busy roads of Lahore. At Site-I the highest concentration was in outdoors followed by corridor andindoor. While at Site II all the sampling location wereindoors and level were comparable to that of outdoor levelsat SiteI. The results suggest the likely contribution of ambient sources in exposure to indoor NO2 in educational and otheroccupational built environments in urban centres.Keywords: Lahore, NO2, passive samplers.INTRODUCTIONIn the developing countries, like Pakistan,industrialization is the key factor for economic growth.Along with industrialization, number of automobiles andpopulation has also increased in these countries in lasttwo decades. These factors havedeterioratedenvironmental quality, especially, in urban areas. Withgrowing pollution as well as population little attention ispaid towards the environmental safety.Environmentalpolicies areinappropriate and pollution control strategiesare not yet fully developed. Among range ofenvironmental issues air pollution has emerged as majorthreat to public health. Different studies havedemonstrated adverse effect of air pollution oncardiopulmonary health. Susceptible population(children, elderly, immunocompromised) are at increasedrisk of adverse health outcome (Chen et al., 2015Kaushik et al.,2006). According to the WHO report, airpollution in 2012 caused premature deaths of around 3.7million people worldwide (WHO, 2014).Pakistan is the 6th major country with respect toits population, comprising 2.62% of the world’spopulation (World Population Prospects, 2012). Due toincreased urbanisation (34% of population live in urbanareas), substantial rise in automobile vehicles,industrialization and poor compliance with environmentalquality control standards the country is facing severe airpollution (Sanchez-Triana et al., 2014).Availableliterature on state of air quality in Pakistan clearly showsthe gravity of situation and this may have public healthimplications, particularly, in urban areas. Amongdifferent air pollutants NO2 is of major concern,following particulate matter, in the country (Colbeck etal. 2010a). It is hazardous to human health and also oneof the main precursor to form secondary pollutant (ozone,fine particles).According to US EPA short term exposure(30 minutes to 24 hours) to NO2 is associated with rangeof respiratory illness - airway inflammation, asthma(USEPA, 2014).The available literature on NO2 levels inPakistan is scattered and is mostly on ambientconcentration. The knowledge base on indoor levels ofNO2 is limited (Colbeck et al., 2010b). Nonetheless,people both in rural and urban areas may be exposed toexcessive levels of NO2 in different built environmentsdue to specific indoor sources (solid fuel use) orcontribution from outdoors combustion sources(especially in urban areas).There is a need to carry out studies to evaluateNO2 in different built environments. The present studywas carried out to examine the level of NO2at twodifferent higher education institutes in Lahore in order todemonstrate the level of indoor NO2 exposure in differentoccupational settings in urban centres.MATERIALS AND METHODSSampling sites: NO2 samples were collected from twohigher education institutes of Lahore. Lahore is thecapital city of the Pakistani province of Punjab, thesecond largest metropolis in the country with aAndleeb et al., J. Anim. Plant Sci. 25 (3 Supp. 2) 2015Proceedings of The National Conference and Training Workshop “Wildlife and Aerobiology” held on February 6-7, 2015 Lahore, Pakistan657population of more than 10 million (Demographia, 2015).Available studies on air pollution in Lahore indicate thatstate of air quality in the city is poor (Jafar and Faridi,2006; Colbeck et al., 2011; Ashraf et al., 2013; Abrar etal., 2014).Two sites were selected to measure NO2: Site I-University of the Punjab, New Campus and Site II:Islamia College for Women Cooper road. Both theselected sites were located along heavy traffic roads inpopulated urban areas.Site I:Site-I was surrounded from all sides by the roadswith continuous flow of heavy traffic. (Figure 1).Threesampling locations in site-I were selected in zoologydepartment and named as outdoor (roof), semi ambient(corridor) and indoor (Wildlife and Ecology laboratory).There were traffic within the university mainlybuses run by university and private student/staff cars,composing and printing shops, cafeterias and laboratoriesin surroundings of sampling locations.Figure 1. Location of site-I and site-II in the Lahore (source google maps)Site II:Site II was located on the road in a populated areawith high traffic density and nearby fuel filling stations.A number of different shops and hotels were located inthe nearby vicinity that used natural gas and LPG gas asfuel for the purpose of cooking and heating the food(Figure 1). Three sampling locations were selected andnamed as (A) Zoology laboratory, (B) Physics laboratoryand (C) Chemistry laboratory. A few lab activities wereperformed as students only visited these laboratoriestwice a week for practical. Most of the time, laboratorieswere used as class rooms for lectures. Ventilation in allthe laboratories was natural and occurred through thewindows, doors and ventilators.Preparation and analysis of Passive samplers: Passivesampler (Plames diffusion tube) comprises of an acrylictube of 7cm long and 1cm diameter capped at both ends.At one end, two stainless steel grids coated with 50%triethanolamine TEA/acetone solution were placed. Thesesamplers were mounted on the sites approximately 2mabove the ground. Three samplers were mounted at eachsampling location. After one week, samplers weresubjected to spectrophotometric analysis. The NO2reacted TEA as nitrite. Mixture of sulphanilamide inorthophosphoric acid and N-1-naphthlethylenediaminedihydrochloride (NEDD) was used as colour reagent. Thenitrite diazotised the sulphanilamide and diazonium saltreacted with the NEDD. This formed a purple azo dyeand intensity ofwhich was determined at 540 nm. Byusing standard solutions of nitritespectrophotometer wascalibrated to determine the total NO2collected by sampleras nitrite.Mean, maximum, minimum and standarddeviation values were derived.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONSite-I:Average NO2concentration in outdoor environmentwas observed to be 79µg/m3 that was greater than thesemi-ambient and indoor (Table 1). The key factorselevating the outdoor levels were most probablyemissions from vehicular exhaust (in and outside ofuniversity).Whereas the levels in corridor (average -69µg/m3) were likely to be influencedby activities inadjacent departments labs as well as outdoors.TheNO2level in indoor environment (laboratory) were lowestand ranged from 35 to 50µg/m3 with an averageconcentration of 44µg/m3. The lower concentrations werevery likely due the less usage of lab and low ventilationrates.Andleeb et al., J. Anim. Plant Sci. 25 (3 Supp. 2) 2015Proceedings of The National Conference and Training Workshop “Wildlife and Aerobiology” held on February 6-7, 2015 Lahore, Pakistan658Table 1: Summary of NO2(µg/m3)at Site I.Location Ave Max Min SD*Outdoor(Roof) 79 93 54 21.7Semi-ambient(Corridor) 69 91 30 34.12Indoor(Lab) 44 50 35 8.14Ave. Average, Max. Maximum, Min. Minimum,*SD. Standard deviationSite-II: The weekly average concentration in Zoology,Chemistry and Physics laboratory were 77, 79 and67µg/m3 respectively (Table 2). These levels mostprobably reflect the contribution from both outdoors andindoors activities. The site was surrounded by heavytraffic and contribution from outdoors via ventilation orinfiltration is might be the dominant source of indoorNO2.Table 1: Summary of NO2 at site-II (µg/m3)Location Ave Max Min SD*(A) Zoology lab 77 84 66 9.64(B) Chemistrylab 79 82 74 4.16(C) Physics lab 67 68 66 1.15Ave. Average, Max. Maximum, Min. Minimum,*SD. Standard deviationThere was less variation in meanlevels atdifferent locations at Site II in comparison to site I. It isof note that all the sampling locations at site II could beclassified as indoor and levels in these settings wereconsiderably higher than indoor at Site I. In fact indoorlevels at site II were comparable to outdoor levels at SiteI. This trend can elucidate the dynamic contribution ofvarious activities/sources to NO2 levels. The vehicularemission within and nearby locality and road proximityseemed to play a considerable role in enhancement ofindoor NO2 level at site-II as compared to site-I.Mirza et al., (2013) measured the concentrationsof NO2 using passive samplers biweekly in three phases(pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon). The meanvalues were observed to be 74.09, 79.87 and 86.09µg/m3, respectively.Despite of difference in totalexposure time (two weeks) than present study (oneweek), the average outdoor value is comparable and inclose relation to the values of all the three phases. Duringwinter and summer of 2010, Colbeck and his colleaguesmeasured the NO2 concentration at different household inLahore. The mean concentrations during winter samplingcampaigns in kitchen, living room and courtyard were218,136 and 64µg/m3, respectively whilst in summers thesubsequent levels were recorded to be 234, 103 and 138µg/m3.These levels are higher than our study and theobserved differences could be due the differences insources specific tobuilt environment types.Our sampling sites were educational/occupational, had no direct burning of any type of fossilfuel very close to the sampling location, spacious andwell ventilated as compared to kitchens and living roomsin households.Figure 2 Comparison of mean concentration of NO2 along with maximum, minimum and standard deviation attwo sites.0102030405060708090100OUTDOOR SEMI-AMBIENT INDOOR ZOOLOGY Lab CHEMISTRY lab PHYSICS labSite-I site-IINO2 levels (µg/m³)MAX Conc µg/m3 MINI Conc µg/m3 MEAN ST DEVAndleeb et al., J. Anim. Plant Sci. 25 (3 Supp. 2) 2015Proceedings of The National Conference and Training Workshop “Wildlife and Aerobiology” held on February 6-7, 2015 Lahore, Pakistan659Conclusion: The present study found high concentrationof NO2atdifferent sampling locations inhigher educationinstitutes located in city centre. Due to limited samplingsites and duration no firm conclusions can be made.However, the results suggest that outdoor sources are amajor contributor to indoor exposure to NO2 in heavytraffic urban areas (Site II) and ventilation and infiltrationplay a major role in NO2level in urban builtenvironments. Direct comparison of observed levels ofNO2 cannot be made with WHO guideline or PakistanNational Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) forambient air due to differences in the averaging period.However, it is likely that levels of NO2 probablyexceeded WHO guideline value of 200 µg/m3 (1 hourmean) and NEQS value of 80 µg/m3 (24 hour mean)especially at site II and outdoors and corridor at site I.There is urgent need to put in place stringent emissioncontrol strategies to improve air quality in urban areas.Further long term studies are required to assess the actualexposure to air pollutants in different built environmentsin urban as well as rural areas in the country.Acknowledgment: We are very thankful to students andstaff of Zoology department, University of the PunjabLahore and Islamia college copper road for theircooperation and assistance in sample collection.REFERENCESAbrar, A., W.Sundas, F.Perveen, M. Habib (2014). AirQuality Monitoring of some Gaseous Pollutantsat selected points in Gulberg II, Lahore, PakistanInt. Res. J. Env. Sci. 3(6):38-47Ashraf, N., M. Mushtaq, B. Sultana, M. Iqbal, I. Ullah,S.A. Shahid (2013). Preliminary monitoring oftropospheric air quality of Lahore City inPakistan.Sustainable Development.3: 1.Colbeck, I., Z.A. Nasir, Z. Ali (2010a).The State ofAmbient Air Quality in Pakistan-A Review.Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res.17: 49–63.Colbeck, I., Z. A. Nasir, Z. Ali, and S. Ahmad (2010b).Nitrogen dioxide and household fuel use in thePakistan, Sci. Total Environ. 409(2): 357-363.Colbeck, I., Z. A. Nasir, S. Ahmad, and Z. Ali (2011).Exposure to PM10, PM2.5, PM1 and carbonmonoxide on roads in Lahore, Pakistan. AerosolAir Qual. Res. 11: 689-695.Chen, Z., M. T. Salam, S. P. Eckel, C. V. Breton, and F.D. Gilliland. (2015). Chronic effects of airpollution on respiratory health in SouthernCalifornia children: findings from the SouthernCalifornia Children’s Health Study, J. Thorac.Dis.7 (1): 46-58.Demographia (2015). World Urban Areas.(Built-UpUrban Areas or World Agglomerations).11thAnnual Edition. Available at:http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdfJafary, Z. A. and I. A. Faridi (2006). Air pollution byroadside dust and automobile exhaust at busyroad crossings of Lahore.Pakistan J. Physiol.2:31-34.Kaushik C.P., K. Ravindra, K.Yadav, S. Mehta and A.K.Haritash (2006). Assessment of ambient airquality in urban centres of Haryana (India) inrelation to different anthropogenic activities andhealth risks. Environ. Monit. Assess. 122(1-3):27-40Mirza, A. I., S. M. Mayo, A. Aziz, M. B. Sharif (2013).Spatial-Temporal Variations of NitrogenDioxide in and Around Lahore MetropolitanAreas Using “GIS” Techniques. PakistanJournal of Science. 65(3).Sanchez-Triana, E., S. Enriquez, J. Afzal, A. Nakagawa,and A. S. Khan. (2014): Cleaning Pakistan’sAir: Policy Options to Address the Cost ofOutdoor Air Pollution. World Bank.Washington, DC. Doi: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0235-5.USEPA (2014). United States Environmental ProtectionAgency. Nitrogen Dioxide, Health. Available at:http://www.epa.gov/oaqps001/nitrogenoxides/health.htmlWHO.(2014). Ambient (outdoor) air quality and health.Fact sheet N 313. Updated March 2014.WHOmedia Centre. Available at:http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/World Population Prospects.(2012). The(2012).Revision:Highlights and Advance Tables"(XLS).TheDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs ofthe United Nations. pp. 51–55. Retrieved 2013-08-11.

Exposure to NO2 in occupational built environments in urban centre in Lahore

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Exposure to NO2 in occupational built environments in urban centre in Lahore

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