Atmospheric 210Pb changes during monsoon in east and west coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

210Pb is widely used as an atmospheric tracer as its parent, 222Rn is continuously produced in the atmosphere from soil emanation. This study was conducted to observe the changes of 210Pb activity based on temporal and spatial factor using PM10 samples. PM10 were sampled by Malaysian Meteorological Department in four station consist of two station from both east and west coast of Peninsular Malaysia in 2007. Activity level of 210Pb was determined using the Tennelec XLB-5 Gross Alpha-Beta Counter, Canberra, after the ingrowth of 210Pb by the outgrowth of 210Bi. Basically, the analysed result showed that three to four significant peaks during northeast monsoon, southwest monsoon and intermonsoon. For east coast which comprises Kuantan and Mersing stations, the highest 210Pb activity in Kuantan was in April and June with 45.73 ± 3.66 mBq/kg and 48.20 ± 3.33 mBq/kg, respectively. While in Mersing, 210Pb activity showed the highest in April and July with 45.77 ± 2.67 mBq/kg and 44.21 ± 2.42 mBq/kg, respectively. As for the west coast, it comprises Setiawan and Chuping stations. Setiawan station showed the highest 210Pb activity in October and July with 48.90 ± 2.52 mBq/kg and 44.09 ± 2.34 mBq/kg, respectively. Chuping showed the highest 210Pb activity in March and October with 39.96 ± 1.94 mBq/kg and 14.98 ± 0.80 mBq/kg, respectively. It shows that 210Pb activity in Chuping is much lower than in Setiawan because of its location is in a rural area. This study showed that during southwest monsoon from May to September, it clearly showed that 210Pb activity is higher in west coast than in east coast as wind sources come from southwest of Peninsular Malaysia. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.