Studying Atmospheric Dust and Heavy Metals on Urban Sites through Synchronous Use of Different Methods

Armen Saghatelyan¹, Lilit Sahakyan^1, , Olga Belyaeva¹ and Nairuhi Maghakyan¹

¹Environmental Geochemistry Department, Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies of NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia

Cite this paper:
Armen Saghatelyan, Lilit Sahakyan, Olga Belyaeva and Nairuhi Maghakyan. Studying Atmospheric Dust and Heavy Metals on Urban Sites through Synchronous Use of Different Methods. Journal of Atmospheric Pollution. 2014; 2(1):12-16. doi: 10.12691/jap-2-1-3

Abstract

Outdoor dust as a pollutant is also a transit environment for different pollutants emphasizing heavy metals. Commonly, it is urban population, who is exposed to the maximal adverse impact of dust and associated pollutants. In most cases, urban atmosphere researches are implemented on a few permanent monitoring stations. Data obtained from these stations cannot be sufficient enough to provide a real picture of atmospheric pollution. The most detailed information is obtained from synchronous instrumental sampling (aspiration) and studies of indicator environments (snow cover, leaves). This research pursued assessment of levels of dust and heavy metal pollution of near-surface air through different methods on the example of city of Yerevan (Armenia). The city area comprises a complex mosaic of natural and man-made sources of dust and heavy metals. So, for many years Yerevan has been exposed to high dust and associated heavy metals pollution levels. The research was implemented in 2011 through 2012 and included spatially coherent snow and tree leaf sampling, and instrumental sampling of dust and allowed assessing dust and heavy metal load and contents on the entire territory of Yerevan, identifying pollution sources, contouring ecologically unfavorable sites and finally identifying risk groups among the population.

Keywords:
urban air pollution dust heavy metals alternative research methods

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