Evaluation of outdoor and indoor dust deposition as environmental pollution in Erbil province

Abstract

Since particulates are a sort of air pollution and seriously impact on environmental conditions, a considerable amount of programs to assess and control air pollution are regarded, since there are only a few studies on dust deposition in Iraq and since there have been drought conditions in last few years. In the Iraqi Kurdistan region, an experiment on dust accumulation as indoor and outdoor air pollution was undertaken in Erbil City and surrounding areas from November 2008 to April, 2009. The amount of deposited dry dust in the deferent studied location and surrounding area was between 9.1 and 48.3 gm.m 2 . per 2 months. The results revealed that the concentration of some chemical characteristics like total acidity, total alkalinity and sulphate ranged between 7-33, 50-88 and 15-180 mg/l respectively. Also determining elements in accumulated dry dust such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sodium ranged from 20.3-95.3, 6.3-2.06, 8.02-66.7 and 0.9-43.6 mg/l respectively. However, heavy metals including Zn +2 , Fe +3 , Cr +3, CU +2 and Pb +2 were at a range of 0. 54-3.8, 15.4-67.3, 0.04-1.22, 0.025-0.47 and 0.21-2.17 mg/l respectively. Radiation levels ranged from 0.02 to 0.08 msv/h (mile sever/hour). Finally, the values of studied parameters -indoor and outdoor -of decomposed dust composition were not more than limited values or levels of most other countries.

The Elemental Composition of Atmospheric Particles and Dust Fall Rate in Erbil Governorate

“…The amount of dry deposition which occurred in the process of transportation and dust and sand storm and the distribution of elemental dust were not very different with previously collected data in Kurdistan Region (Aziz and Dabagh, 2012). Lai et al (2007) showed that the abundance of Pb, Cd and Fe in the atmosphere might occur as the result of vehicle exhaust emissions, industrial discharge, oil lubricants, and automobile parts along with the corrosion of building materials.…”

“…Considerable amount of techniques and programs to mitigate and assess air pollution are regarded, there have been few studies on dust fall and their health and environmental consequences as Iraq have been facing a drought condition in the last decade. A study by (Aziz and Dabagh, 2012) in Erbil on evaluation of outdoor and indoor dust deposition found that decomposed dust were not more than limited values or levels of most of other countries. Natural and anthropogenic air pollutants can be transported in the atmosphere from original places for long distances (Varga et al, 2013).…”