Annual and Diurnal Trend of Surface Ozone (O3) in Industrial Area

Abstract

Malaysia is a developing country that facing air pollution issues due to industrialization, urbanization activities and population growth. Ozone (O3) is one of the pollutants that can give adverse effects to human health either in long- term or short-term effect. Moreover, it also can interrupt the normal ecosystem and cause extinction in species. This study aims to analyse the annual trends of the concentration of ozone (O3) level for 3-year and the diurnal trends of ozone at Kemaman, Terengganu. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that there exists statistically significant different (p<0.05) of O3 concentrations during year 2012-2014. Meanwhile, diurnal trend showed the lowest O3 concentration values in the morning and the highest average concentration values of O3 in the noon, but it starts to decrease gradually in evening and night. The understanding of the ozone trend, yearly and hourly, can helps in tackling the atmospheric pollution problems due to industrialization in Malaysia.