An assessment of ambient air quality in Gyor, Hungary

Publication Name: World Congress on Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering

Publication Date: 2018-01-01

Volume: Unknown

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

This paper presents an assessment of air quality of the city Gyor, located 120 km west to the capital of Hungary. Two urban air monitoring stations are operated by the local Environmental Protection Laboratory in the city. The concentration data of major air pollutants (CO, NOx, SO2, C6H6, O3, PM10, PM2.5), PM10-bound heavy metals (Pb, Cd, As and Ni) and some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), benzo(a)anthracene, sum of three benzofluoranthene (b, k and j) isomers, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene are available for the assessment based on the latest published monitoring data of the Hungarian Air Quality Monitoring Network. The levels of pollutants were compared with the Hungarian and EU limit or target values defined for health protection and the WHO air quality guidelines (AQGs) or estimated reference levels (RLs). Moreover, the air quality index values for the pollutants were calculated. The results indicated that the main pollutants were BaP, PM10 and PM2.5 in the Gyor atmosphere. The annual mean concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 aerosols reached the WHO AQGs (20 and 10 μg/m3), while that of the BaP it was about 5.5 times higher than the WHO RL value of 0.12 ng/m3. However, a good or excellent air quality was identified for all examined air pollutants based on the concentration data evaluated by the Hungarian and EU limit or target values.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.11159/awspt18.112

Authors - 2