Publication
Title
Monitoring of $NO_{2}$ in the ambient air with passive samplers before and after a road reconstruction event
Author
Abstract
 Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations were used to evaluate the air quality before and after the infrastructural change of an important traffic artery in Mortsel, Antwerp (Belgium). During the reconstruction works two pairs of traffic lanes were reduced to one in each direction. Two sampling campaigns were conducted: the first one before the works in 2003 and the second one in 2005, after the road works were finished. Sampling was performed on a weekly base with the use of passive diffusion tubes on the streets, and also indoors in nearby houses. The samples were analyzed by ion chromatography, from which data the NO2 concentrations in air could be calculated. These results were compared with NO2 values from the air monitoring station 42R801 of the Flemish Environment Agency in Borgerhout, Antwerp. On the base of different NO2 concentrations, correlated well with the traffic density, sampling locations were classified into three groups as follows: 1) heavily polluted (heavy traffic); 2) moderately polluted (medium traffic); or 3) less polluted (low traffic density). Sampling sites located further from the road works, enclosed to the group less polluted, showedthe lowestNO2 concentrations. The highestNO2 levelwas found for the locations close to reconstructionworks, which belonged to the group heavily polluted. The contribution of NO2 was at the samelevel before and after the roadworks. During the first campaign it ranged from30±7 µg/m3 to 71±11 µg/m3 and during the second sampling itwas between 36±17 µg/m3 and 73±17 µg/m3. These modernizationworks had no impact on preventing the traffic-related pollutant as NO2 and as a consequence no significant effect on the air quality in the studied region. It has been proven that the impact of traffic on the air quality is unmistakably high and simply reduction of the number of the traffic lanes, intended to discourage the traffic flow, had apparently no environmentally advantageous effect
Language
English
Source (journal)
Microchemical journal. - New York
Publication
New York : 2008
ISSN
0026-265X
0026-265X
Volume/pages
90:2(2008), p. 93-98
ISI
000261084200002
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
 Faculty/Department Research group Publication type Subject Affiliation Publications with a UAntwerp address