Plant Bioindicators in Assessing Air Quality: A Short Review (Published)
Air pollution, long recognized as having an adverse impact on health and comfort, is increasing in urban and industrial areas of society at a rate that makes it one of the most pressing environmental problems. Pollution refers to the introduction of harmful substances into the environment, negatively impacting humans and other organisms and contributing to the degradation of the quality of our environment. This paper aims to discuss the identification of certain plant species that can be used as biological indicators in assessing air quality. In this context, the aim of this paper is to analyze several theoretical aspects of biological monitoring and provide a report on the progress of using plants as biological indicators of air quality. This paper aims to describe the most significant aspects of current knowledge in this field, evaluate the applicability of the methodology, and detail its advantages and disadvantages when compared with traditional methods.
Keywords: air quality, assessing, bioindicators, plant, short review
Assessment of Indoor Air pollution through use of Indoor Plants (Published)
The study modeled air quality in the indoor spaces. Air quality “refers to the condition of the air within surrounding Air quality meter, thermometer and lux meter were used for assessment of air quality of indoor spaces for four weeks in Gangotari hostel of CCSHAU, Hisar. For the experimental work six rooms were selected for assessment of indoor air quality of a specific plants was kept in each different rooms i.e.R1 (spider plant), R2 (rubber plant), R3 (bamboo palm), R4 (snake plant), R5 (boston fern) and one room was RC (control room) for comparison in air quality. In all rooms where indoor plants were placed showed improvement in indoor air quality in terms of formaldehyde, suspended particulate matter, after 4th week in control room formaldehyde increased 1.60 percent whereas, room with spider plant formaldehyde decreased by 74.07%, trailed by 73.30% decrease in room with bamboo palm. The suspended particulate matter after 4th week in control room increased by 70.92% but in room with spider plant it reduced by 50.02% trailed by 32.71% decrease in room with rubber plant.
Citation: Santosh Kumari and Manju Mehta (2022) Assessment of Indoor Air pollution through use of Indoor Plants, International Journal of Environment and Pollution Research, Vol.10, No.4 pp.33-51
Keywords: Indoor plants, air quality, formaldehyde, suspended particulate matters
Evaluation of Ambient Air Quality at Nekede and Naze Dumpsites, Imo State, South East Nigeria (Published)
Environmental pollution is one potential consequence of lack of proper management of municipal solid waste. The study was carried out to evaluate on-site air quality at Nekede and Naze dumpsites with respect to dry and wet seasons. Samples were measured at six (6) sampling points within and around the field using a series of calibrated hand held air quality monitoring equipment. At each sampling point, nine (9) air quality parameters (particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) Hydrogen sulphide (H2S), Ammonia (NH3), Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Methane (CH4), Carbon dioxide (CO2), Carbon monoxide (CO) and Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were measured.Results showed that PM2.5 and PM10 were detected in all stations of both dumpsites in both seasons. The highest values for all parameters measured were at the dumpsites except for CO which increased as distance progressed off the dumpsite. The CO ranged 0.42-0.94ppm at Nekede dumpsite and 0.20-1.12 ppm at Naze dumpsite during the dry season with the lowest values measured at station NKAQ1 and NZAQ1 with corresponding values of 0.42 and 0.20 ppm. CH4 was less than 0.01 ppm at NZAQ3 in both seasons under study. All parameters measured were higher in Nekede area than Naze except for NH3 which ranged 0.01- 0.15 ppm and 0.02-0.17 ppm respectively for both seasons. Generally NKAQ3 and NZAQ3 which all served as control stations had the lowest concentration of all parameters measured but otherwise for CO. Result further revealed that all parameters except CO exceeded the concentration values stipulated by USEPA and WHO, implying serious health implications in the study area. Results from this study calls for proper waste management system to ameliorate air pollution in the study area.
Keywords: Environment, Imo State, Pollution, air quality