Measuring the Air Pollutants in Sabzevar, Iran

Background and Photochemical smogs, CO, NO2 and SO2 are among the major air pollutants with known effects and complications. The present study was designed to investigate the density of these pollutants in Sabzevar, Iran. Methods and Materials: this descriptive cross-sectional study intended to measure the air pollutants in different parts of Sazbevar, Iran. Sampling was done with stratified time sampling based on NIOSH 4800 and 6004 methods for SO2 and NO2, and method 6604 for CO. Sampling instruments included pump (debi 5 L/min), impinger, detector tube and ratameter. Based on traffic intensity, four points in the city were located and observe for 12 months, three day a month and three times per day; total sample swere 324. Data analyssi was done in SPSS 16 usingdescriptive measures as well as Pearson correlation coefficient ad one-sample t-test. Significantly highest rate of CO intensity was observed in Mordad (August) (64.1 mg/m3) and Esfand (March) (63.11 mg/m3) (P<0.01). The lowest one-hou intensity of CO was seen in Tabas square (21.71 mg/m3) and the highest in Post square (97.13). Mean annual concentration of SO2 ranged from 2.61 to 95.34 mg/m3, with the highest amount in Mehr (September) (83 mg/m3) (p<0.05). The highest annual concentrtion of NO2 was seen in Aban (October) (87.89) (P<0.05). the results showed that the density of CO throughout the year and that of SO2 during some months of the year were above the standard amounts but the density of NO2 was not higher throughout the year.