Abstract
On the basis of the reported air quality index (API) and air pollutant monitoring data obtained at the Peshawar city over the last seven years, the characteristics of air quality prominent pollutants and variation of the average annual concentrations of SO2, NO2 total suspended particulate (TSP) fine particulates (PM10) CO and dust fall in Peshawar were analyzed. Results showed that SO2 and NO2 were the prominent pollutants in the ambient air environment of Peshawar. Of the prominent pollutants TSP accounted for nearly 63 % SO2, 32.8 ppb NO2, 147 ppb of CH4, 13.8 ppb of CO, 94.5 µg/m3 of MC and 0.60 ppb of O3 respectively in 2013. NO2 to SO2 comparison ratio initially declined to 39.3 in 2009 and then starts to increase to 42.5 in 2010 while in 2013 reached upto 44.8 and O3 to SO2 ratio in the last year of observation, the ratio drop to 0.01830 µg/m3. Concentrations of air pollutants have shown a upward trend in recent years but they are generally worse than ambient air quality standards for EPA-USA, Pakistan and EU. SO2 and NOx pollution were still serious impling that waste gas pollution from all kinds of vehicles had become a significant problem for environmental protection in Peshawar. The possible causes of worsening air quality were also discussed in this paper.
