Particulate Air Pollution Concentration in the City of Gachsaran, 2005-2006

Introduction & Air pollution is a major environmental problem in urban areas. PM10 (Particulate Matters with a diameter less than 10 micrometer) is one of the most important pollutants in air, and an increase of 10 μgr/m3 in concentration may cause an increase of 1-3 percent in the mortality rate. The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of the PM10 air pollution in the city of Gachsaran. This is an analytic-longitudinal study. 6936 air samples were collected during 334 days from April 2005 to March 2006 using a SM200 dust monitor sampler machine. The data were analyzed conducting oneway ANOVA, Tukey and t-student tests and then compared with the WHO standard rates. The results revealed a direct linear correlation between air temperature and concentration of PM10 (p<0.001). There was a significant difference between the mean value of PM10 concentration (μgr/m3) in the seasons of summer (226.3), spring (167.8), autumn (111.6), and winter (85.7). In addition, the mean concentrations of PM10 in warmer months exceeded to the maximum permissible concentration. It can be concluded that some important variables such as air dryness, low rate of humidity and rainfall, high temperature along with the huge local oil industries are the potential factors of air pollution in Gachsaran