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551.510.42 : 66. 082 : 543. 7 (547.1 )

Environmental concentrations of some ofthe major inorganic pollutants at theBARe site, Trombay, Bombay

P. K. ZUTSHI, n . SEQm ;IRA, T. N. ~IAHADEVAN and TAPOTI BANEIUEE

flcailit Pltys i~., Di" i.' ioll , JiARG, HOII/bay

(Received 12 So«..mber 191;9)

AD'iTltAcr. At;g:ro,ltll. te monthly avorap;08 of some of tho major inorganic pollutants in tho atmosphere, a t theB.Ut e eltc at Trombay, Unmooy over tho p&'it few YOArli a.ro preeentod, With a view to bJ"Uallly al'ROSR the extentof air pollurlcn II.t tho f1 :lonlpling s ite , tho res ults are compared with known internetionel air quality . tlr.ndard8.

1. Introdu ction

With increasi ng population and growing tempoof indust ria lization air pollution in Ind ia mayreach hazardous levels, particular ly so in the bi;;indust ria l cit ies, if effective steps are not ta kenfor its abatement and control (Zutshi 1968).

' Vith n view to 118.";CSS th e existi ng levels ofMIIlIJ of the importa nt inorganio pollutants arou ndBombay, ' v·0 have been doing air analysis a t t heBhabha Atomic Research Centre site, at Trornbavrlnring the last few yea... The Bhubha .Homi-;'Heseurch Cent re is 1O<",t",1 about 10 km duenortheast of the centre of the city of Bombay,On the western and southweste rn sides of theBARC are located , 1I th ermal power plant, 1I conpieof oil refineries, a production unit of the FertilizerCorporation of Iudiu and a few other chemicalindu stries. The results of measurements at thissite are presented in th is paper. Unfortunately, thesampIing could neither be done more extensivelynor "ery regu larly' , as such most of the resultsare presented as llYCrages for the various monthsdnring these years instea d of monthly valuesfor each year separate ly. Therefore, besidespresenting the general levels of the various pol.lutants around tho BARC site, Trombay no detai­led corre lations or interpertations are attemptedhere. Regular and more extensive samplingis necessary for any serious attempt in th is direc­tion.

"Following i.e roughlv t he l"It"riod covered by our ex­pcrbnental sempling of tho pol utente :

Year Gtl.tICOUi Polluta nts Particulates

1966 Feb to Dec Sop to Dec1967 J an to Doc .Jo.o to Dee1968 J an, May end Dec Jan to Jun

1969 Jan to Mar NU473

2. AnalyUcal Procedures(I) Particulate mauer

A high volume air sampler (Stap lex bra nd inour ease) is used to sample the environmcntal airat a flow rate of about 150 litres per minute. Glassfihre filter I'" pees, which are thoroughly washedwith d isti lled water and dried , a re used to col­lect t he suspended particulates from the sampledair. Most other filter pllpees which are conuner­cially ava ilab le are found to contai n uppreciableand variable amounts of common rad icals, e.g.,aulphates, chlorides, nitra tes awl ammo nium etc.

(a) Tolal dust load - The filter paper is preservedin a desiccator for at least 24 hours pr ior to weighinghath before and after the oollection of th e parti­c~dntc sample. The difference in the two weightsg"'es the total dust load (M' l'gfm3 ) for a knownvolume of air.

(v) TI,e be"••ne soluble or9allics- The filterI"per along with the total contents is refluxedwith about 50 1111 of analar grade benzene fora period of a~nt an hour , TI,e insoluble fracti onis separated and the remainder is d ried underan infrared lamp, and weighed , This gives theweight of the benzene soluble org'dnics (fno,I' g/m' ).

(e) II'aler soluble fraction - Tho fraction from(h) which is insoluhle in benzene is boiled withdistilled water and th o solub le aud insolub le frac­tion s are ah",in separa ted . A fraction of thewater soluble part is evaporated to d ryn ess underlow heat and weighed , thus giving the total watersoluble fract ion (m", I'g!n,3). The remainingfraction of the water soluble matte r in solntionis used to analyse the following -

(i) Sulpbate«- The bari um chloranilntemethod , proposed by Bcrto lacini and