Análise estatística das concentrações atmosféricas do material particulado PM10 em três regiões distintas do estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The study of atmospheric pollution is becoming more common, the air pollution is the result of gas, suspended solid and liquid particles contamination in the atmosphere. The caused effect might be immediate or in the medium or long term, since the pollution, depending of the meteorological conditions and local topographics, can be of difficult dispersion. The particulate matter is one of the most dangerous pollutants, since it’s made of microscopic particles, that easily penetrates the human organism. The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the concentration of PM10 in three regions of the state of Rio de Janeiro: Cidade de Deus, Seropédica and Duque de Caxias, verifying if the kind of activity developed (urban, rural or industrial) has influence over the pollution levels. In addition to that, verifying if the air quality standards adopted in Brazil are being respected on the three regions of study and to conduct a case study of the pollutants’ trajectory and deposition using the “HYSPLIT” trajectory model. For the study in case, daily data of PM10 from 1998 to 2003 were supplied by the Instituto Estadual do Ambiente (INEA-RJ) (State Institute of Environment, INEA-RJ). Seropédica region shows rural characteristics, Cidade de Deus is an urban region and Duque de Caxias, is characterized as an industrial region. The analysis involved data input techniques, as well as analysis of temporal series and statistics tests. In the initial results, the difference of the regions’ average concentrations is highlighted, with the characteristic rural region, Seropédica, showing lower average concentration of PM10, 26,6 μg m-3 while the regions of Cidade de Deus and Duque de Caxias showed higher averages of 67 μg m-3. It has been identified the air quality standards weren’t respected on most of the days during the study in the urban and industrial regions, the opposite of the rural region, which suggests the kind of activity developed in the region could be influencing the presence and concentration of PM10. Hopefully this study could serve as a basis for the elaboration of public policies, providing knowledge and consciousness to the population regarding the importance in reducing pollutants’ emission.