10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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Lung Capacity of Traffic Wardens Affected by Vehicular Pollution in Lahore, Pakistan
SAIMA YAQUB SHELLY, Husna Malik, Zulfiqar Ali, Farkhanda Manzoor, Sammuel Shahzad, Zaheer Ahmad Nasir, Lahore College for Women University, 54600, Lahore, Pakistan
Abstract Number: 730 Working Group: Aerosol Exposure
Abstract Lahore was selected as the study site as it being the heart of Punjab and also the second most densely populated city of Pakistan and the 42nd most populous city in the world with a population of about 11 million people with a 2% growth rate leading to high number of increase in motorized vehicles in the last decade as well as the city attracting a higher number of commuters. It was the first city where the Traffic warden system were employed for the first time. A total recruitment of 3300 wardens were piloted in the past ten years.These wardens are alternated between areas of high, moderate and low traffic but being exposed to heavy vehicular pollutants has lead to health deterioration on a large scale. Long standing stressful duty hours increases the tendency to lose health faster than the common man. This study was conducted on randomly selected traffic wardens to check if the lung capacity of these physically well looking individuals has deteriorated with the passage of time along with pollution episodes at peak and non-peak hours in all ten towns of Lahore in both summer and winter seasons.
The lung capacity was measured for 500 cases under study by a digital portable spirometer MDX Spiro Tron. The values of FVC, FEV1 FEV1 predicted and FEV1/FVC were then used to categorize the individuals as per standards followed for Asians by National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) 2010 for severity of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Vehicular pollution data was monitored on ten sites marked throughout Lahore for sixteen hours each in both winters and summers for Temperature, Humidity, Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Carbon Monooxide (CO), PM2.5 and PM10 with the help of Aeroquel portable monitor 500 for gases and GRADKO DC 1700 for particulate matter. The traffic density on the selected points was calculated by the number of vehicles crossing in a 24 hour time period, thus dividing the areas into Light, moderate and Heavy traffic density zones. The data obtained from the monitors was statistically analyzed by SPSS and reported.
The environmental data was collected during the summer and winter season for sixteen hours each with an interval of fifteen minutes. The data for wind speed and direction was obtained from the metrology department and depicted by synoptic charts denoting the level of pollution at the particular area when it was monitored.
It was observed that the temperature varied non-significantly between the towns whereas the humidity, CO level, NO2 level, PM2.5 and PM10 varied significantly between the towns. Significant correlation was observed between the varying seasons and temperature and PM2.5 whereas as the humidity, CO and NO2 correlated negatively with the seasonal changes. Temperature showed negative correlation with humidity and CO whereas NO2 showed negative correlation with particulate matter value. Significant difference was observed for PM2.5, PM10 and CO among towns with light and heavy traffic in both the summer and winter seasons.
As per the Kruskal-Wallis test the values of FEV1 and FEV1Pred also varied significantly for wardens of different towns in Lahore. Strong positive correlation was observed with high traffic density and low FVC and FEV1 values.
It is thus concluded from the study that the areas containing heavier load of traffic are more prone to emission to gases coming from those vehicles causing lung damage showed by decreased values of FEV1 and FEV1 predicted in individuals who have worked for longer periods of time and have been exposed the most thus concluding that long term exposure of vehicular emissions leads to lower lung capacities and higher disease symptoms.