Faculty Publications
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Item Air quality assessment of Dhanbad District, India - A case study(2010) Anantharamu, A.; Singh, G.; Venkat Reddy, D.Ambient air pollution status in Dhanbad district is studied and presented in this article. The selection of Dhanbad is made considering its importance and the nature of activities taking place around the district. For the assessment of ambient air quality in Dhanbad, the following five locations were chosen: Main Gate of Indian School of Mines(ISM), Dhanbad: It is a site representing purely commercial activities and road traffic. Bankmore: It is one of the busiest marketing centres of the district and is surrounded by residential areas. All the vehicles going to Bokaro pass by this place and thus the traffic density is pretty high. Kusunda: It is a place 10.9 kilometres from Dhanbad Railway Station. It is just beside one of the coal mines, hence, all vehicles going to the mine passes through this place. Steel Gate: It consists of a small market. Trucks and other heavy vehicle are more frequent during night as this road connects to a highway. ISM Admin Block: It can be considered as a sensitive area since it is a very calm place where the usage of vehicles is minimum throughout the day. Monitoring of ambient air quality is done following the standard procedure prescribed in IS: 5182. In addition, the concentration of lead, zinc, cadmium, copper, manganese and iron metals in SPM is also monitored. The ambient air quality assessment was done in the month of June, 2009. The concentration of SPM was higher than the permissible limit in three locations namely ISM Main Gate, Bankmore and Steel Gate, while it was less than the permissible limit in other two locations, ISM Admin Block and Kusunda. Since the generation of SPM was mainly due to vehicular traffic it was expected to cross the limit in the above mentioned three locations as density of vehicular movement is very high. © 2010 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY.Item Characterization and proinflammatory response of airborne biological particles from wastewater treatment plants(2011) Gangamma, S.; Patil, R.S.; Mukherji, S.Wastewater contains a variety of microorganisms, and unit operations in the plants could release these biological components into the air environment. These airborne biological particles could have adverse health effects on plant workers and the downwind population. This study provides a first report on the concentration and characterization of the airborne biological particles in six wastewater treatment plants in Mumbai, India. The study indicates that 49% and 27% of the samples exceed, respectively, the exposure limit for airborne endotoxin and bacteria in occupational settings. Endotoxin was identified as the single most important component of the particulate matter responsible for induction of proinflammatory indicator (tumor necrosis factor-?) in in vitro assay. Identification of several clinically important bacterial species in the samples suggests that the workers at the treatment plant are exposed to opportunistic and infectious bacteria. Principal component analysis was used to identify the groups among the bacterial species which serves as the signature for transport study. Analysis also shows that the component related to spore-forming bacteria is present in all samples. © 2011 American Chemical Society.Item An economic analysis of environmental pollution and health - a case study of Bellary-Hospet sector(2012) Thimmaiah, S.A.; Ravi, D.R.; Rao, Y.V.; Murthy, C.S.N.The Earth's natural ecosystem is the basis for our life-supporting system and provides marketable goods to human and other living organisms. The natural environment has always been exploited to fulfill human needs. The green revolution and industrial revolution has caused serious threat to sustainable development for both developed and developing countries. The degradation of air, water and land has directly affected the livelihood and human health. The environmental damage increases, as the economic activity increases, in view of the fact that the association between economy and the environment are multiple, complex and important. Mining is one such activity, which significantly results in the degradation of the environment, apart from generating huge economy to the country. Hence, the identification and quantification of socio economic impact of environmental pollution caused due to increased mining activity is necessary in the broader economic analysis. The present study is envisaged with the objective to identify and evaluate the impacts of mining activity on Social, Economical and Environmental Aspects of the area and to measure its economic burden on the affected people. The ambient air quality in the selected stations of study area reveals that, the increase in iron ore production has significantly resulted in the deterioration of air quality. High particulate matter to an extent of 310 ?g/nm3 in case of SPM concentration and 160 ?g/nm3 in case of RSPM. The health data collected from the respondents have revealed, significantly more number of respondents who are suffering from dust allergy, skin allergy in the study area, where there are mines and are working as workers in those mines, contributing for higher health cost incurred through treatment. © 2012 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY.Item Item Evaluating the performance of a turbulent wet scrubber for scrubbing particulate matter(Taylor and Francis Inc. 325 Chestnut St, Suite 800 Philadelphia PA 19106, 2013) Lee, B.-K.; Raj Mohan, B.; Byeon, S.-H.; Lim, K.-S.; Hong, E.-P.A turbulent wet scrubber was designed and developed to scrub particulate matter (PM) at micrometer and submicrometer levels from the effluent gas stream of an industrial coal furnace. Experiments were conducted to estimate the particle removal efficiency of the turbulent scrubber with different gas flow rates and liquid heads above the nozzle. Particles larger than 1 ?m were removed very efficiently, at nearly 100%, depending upon the flow rate, the concentration of the dust-laden air stream, and the water level in the reservoir. Particles smaller than 1 ?m were also removed to a greater extent at higher gas flow rates and for greater liquid heads. Pressure-drop studies were also carried out to estimate the energy consumed by the scrubber for the entire range of particle sizes distributed in the carrier gas. A maximum pressure drop of 217 mm H2O was observed for a liquid head of 36 cm and a gas flow rate of 7 m3/min. The number of transfer units (NTU) analysis for the efficiencies achieved by the turbulent scrubber over the range of particles also reveals that the contacting power achieved by the scrubber is better except for smaller particles. The turbulent scrubber is more competent for scrubbing particulate matter, in particular PM2.5, than other higher energy or conventional scrubbers, and is comparable to other wet scrubbers of its kind for the amount of energy spent. Copyright © 2013 A&WMA.Item Characteristics of airborne bacteria in Mumbai urban environment(Elsevier, 2014) Gangamma, S.Components of biological origin constitute small but a significant proportion of the ambient airborne particulate matter (PM). However, their diversity and role in proinflammatory responses of PM are not well understood. The present study characterizes airborne bacterial species diversity in Mumbai City and elucidates the role of bacterial endotoxin in PM induced proinflammatory response in ex vivo. Airborne bacteria and endotoxin samples were collected during April-May 2010 in Mumbai using six stage microbial impactor and biosampler. The culturable bacterial species concentration was measured and factors influencing the composition were identified by principal component analysis (PCA). The biosampler samples were used to stimulate immune cells in whole blood assay. A total of 28 species belonging to 17 genera were identified. Gram positive and spore forming groups of bacteria dominated the airborne culturable bacterial concentration. The study indicated the dominance of spore forming and human or animal flora derived pathogenic/opportunistic bacteria in the ambient air environment. Pathogenic and opportunistic species of bacteria were also present in the samples. TNF-? induction by PM was reduced (35%) by polymyxin B pretreatment and this result was corroborated with the results of blocking endotoxin receptor cluster differentiation (CD14). The study highlights the importance of airborne biological particles and suggests need of further studies on biological characterization of ambient PM. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.Item Source apportionment of lead and cadmium by chemical characterization of PM2.5(Enviro Media rktem@pn3.vsnl.net.in, 2016) Srinikethan, G.; Ayare, A.Particulate matter below 2.5 micron (PM2.5) and its existence in atmosphere is observed in most of major cities in India and abroad. Health impacts of such pollutant on human being leading asthma and chronic bronchitis in India in last decade. Pune city in Maharashtra state of India is rapidly emerging as mega city in India due to its urbanization and modernization. Particulate matter and trace elements in it are causing severe effects on people of Pune. In present study, trace elements like lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in PM2.5 at Pune city in Maharashtra, India were measured with the help of PM2.5 sampler and chemical characterization of Pb and Cd was done to determine the concentrations in the ambient air. The source apportionment of Pb and Cd was done by applying US EPA positive matrix factorization model to identify the sources and quantitative distribution of these elements at receptor location of Katraj in Pune city. The main objective was to identify and determine health impacts of Pb and Cd as well as PM2.5. The results of the study shall help urban planners, air quality planners and people of medicine to initiate urban air pollution management in Pune city.Item Source apportionment of PM2.5 particles: Influence of outdoor particles on indoor environment of schools using chemical mass balance(AAGR Aerosol and Air Quality Research hhyang@cyut.edu.tw, 2017) Kalaiarasan, G.; Mohan Balakrishnan, R.M.; Sethunath, N.A.; Manoharan, S.Children have higher lung function than adults and they spend most of their day time in schools. Also, children studying at schools located in the vicinity of busy roadways are vulnerable to childhood asthma and respiratory disorders. The present study is focused on estimating the sources of PM2.5 particles present in the indoor air quality in schools which are located adjacent to urban and suburban roadways. The indoor PM2.5 samples from all the four schools were collected using fine dust sampler from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The sampling was carried out for one complete week during various seasons including both working and non-working days. The chemical compositions of the PM2.5 samples were analyzed for certain elements like Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr, Ti, V and Zn using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES) and ions like F-, Cl-, NO3-, PO43-, SO42-, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, NH4+, Na+ using Ion Chromatography (IC). Source apportionment study using Chemical Mass Balance was carried out using the species concentration of the collected samples. The major sources were found to be Paved Road Dust, Soil Dust, Gasoline Vehicle Emissions, Diesel Vehicle Emissions and Marine Source Emissions. Among these, vehicular emissions contribution was found to be higher for the schools located close to roadways rather than the school located at a considerable distance from highway. The difference in source type contribution at each school clearly depicts the difference in nature of location and type of activities in the vicinity of the sampling sites. © Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research.Item Source apportionment studies on particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) in ambient air of urban Mangalore, India(Academic Press, 2018) Kalaiarasan, G.; Mohan Balakrishnan, R.M.; Sethunath, N.A.; Manoharan, S.Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) samples were collected from six sites in urban Mangalore and the mass concentrations for PM10 and PM2.5 were measured using gravimetric technique. The measurements were found to exceed the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) limits, with the highest concentration of 231.5 ?g/m3 for PM10 particles at Town hall and 120.3 ?g/m3 for PM2.5 particles at KMC Attavar. The elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrophotometer (ICPOES) revealed twelve different elements (As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Sr and Zn) for PM10 particles and nine different elements (Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn) for PM2.5 particles. Similarly, ionic composition of these samples measured by ion chromatography (IC) divulged nine different ions (F?, Cl?, NO3 ?, PO4 3?, SO4 2?, Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) for PM10 particles and ten different ions (F?, Cl?, NO3 ?, PO4 3?, SO4 2?, Na+, NH4 +, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) for PM2.5 particles. The source apportionment study of PM10 and PM2.5 for urban Mangalore in accordance with these six sample sites using chemical mass balance model (CMBv8.2) revealed nine and twelve predominant contributors for both PM10 and PM2.5, respectively. The highest contributor of PM10 was found to be paved road dust followed by diesel and gasoline vehicle emissions. Correspondingly, PM2.5 was found to be contributed mainly from two-wheeler vehicle emissions followed by four-wheeler and heavy vehicle emissions (diesel vehicles). The current study depicts that the PM10 and PM2.5 in ambient air of Mangalore region has 70% of its contribution from vehicular emissions (both exhaust and non-exhaust). © 2018 Elsevier Ltd