Monitoring Ambient Air Quality in the Carpathian Region of Ukraine

Ivano-Frankivsk oblast is located in the south-western part of Ukraine, close to the geographical center of Europe at the junction of the two major geographic units, the East European Plain and the Eastern Carpathians (the Carpathian region of Ukraine). Between September 2013 and September 2015, the expert group of the Department of Organic and Analytical Chemistry of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University conducted the mobile monitoring of air cleanliness in Ivano-Frankivsk region; the authors monitored the level of air contamination with seven gases: carbon monoxide and dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, formaldehyde, beta-particles, and gamma radiation. For this purpose, there were used six automatic analyzers “Dozor-C-P”, the formaldehyde Gas Analyzer “МІС-98170”, and the radiometer “TERRA”. The monitoring resulted in the making of three maps of Ivano-Frankivsk region, on which the average levels of concentration of three particular gases (CO2, SO2, and CH2O) throughout all the districts of the oblast were marked. There was registered the excess of CH2O limits—the consequences of the presence of the chipboard and wood-fiber production, for which formaldehyde is used as a raw material. Also there was observed the excess of SO2 in the air caused by gas fumes from vehicles and thermal power stations.