VARIATION OF PM10 AND HEAVY METALS CONCENTRATION OF SUB-URBAN AREA CAUSED BY HAZE EPISODE

Abstract

A severe haze episode has swept across Malaysia in late June until October 2015 and has caused sharp rises of Air Pollution Index (API) across the country. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of haze event on the API sub-indices during 10 days of the sampling period. The air particulate samples (PM10) were collected at an open site in UiTM Jengka, Pahang by using high volume air sampler (HVAS). The standard acid digestion method was applied to dissolve the sample and the concentrations of heavy metals were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma – optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES). The API sub-indices were calculated based on the standard method applied by Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia. The results showed significant differences in PM10 mass between haze and non-haze days, which were ranged between 28.4 μg/m 3 to 132.9 μg/m and 17.3 μg/m to 34.7 μg/m for the respective two sampling intervals, haze and non-haze days. The mass concentrations of the studied metals did not show any significant different between the two intervals which indicates other constituent of particulate has contributed to the different weight of PM10. The highest API sub-indices during haze days was recorded as 89 which is classified as moderate level of air pollution. The overall results clearly showed that haze event has increased the PM10 mass of the surrounding air but not the concentration of heavy metals.