Determination of atmospheric PM10 concentration in Kandy in relation to traffic intensity

Abstract

Athmospheric particulate matter (PM) concentration was measured at 25 sites in Kandy. The city is surrounded by hills and is the second most populous city in Sri Lanka, where for 3 continuous peak hours the traffic intensity is in the range of 0 to 2640 vehicles/h. A high-volume air sampler with the cyclone attachment was used to measure the concentration of particulate matter less than 10 μm in size (known as PM10). The concentration of PM10 in the atmosphere at the average breathing level is found to have 82% variance in common with the traffic intensity. Colour indices assigned for the filtered samples, which represent the intensity of the airborne carbon particles, of the high-volume air sampler have 91% variance in common with the corresponding colour indices assigned for the filtered samples of the low-volume personal air sampler.