رسائل ماجيستير
English
2002
Impact of Traffic Air Pollution on Traffic Policemen
احلام محمد, محمد علي عوض
معهد الدراسات البيئية-جامعة الخرطوم · السودان
For the determination of The magnitude of traffic air pollution inKhartoum State was determined by measurement of the concentrations ofthe air pollutants CO, NO2, HC, SO2, Pb and SPM in air at 15 locations(the busiest crossroads) in the three towns i.e. Khartoum, KhartoumNorth and Omdurman .This study aimed at the evaluation of the traffic air pollutionproblem in Khartoum state and its adverse health effects on the trafficpolicemen. For the assessment of the adverse health effects onthe traffic policemen a questionnaire was designed and 100 policemenresponded to it .Also from a group of 30 traffic policemen group urineand blood samples were collected and analyzed to determine the Pblevels . Also urine and blood samples were collected from 5 unexposedpersons as control group.The results revealed that all the study group were males withages greater than 30 years , minimum residence duration in KhartoumState was 10 years and they worked for more than 10 years with theaverage daily working hours ranging from 8 to 12 hours in range. 12% ofthem have previous work in agriculture or trade .98% of them recognizedtraffic air pollution as a problem, 12% of them weighed it as medium,40% as high and 46% as very high and 2 has no opinion. 8% of therespondents are smokers. 10% always complain of flue and cough. 32%of chest tightness or difficulty in breathing, 30% of exhaustion or fatigue,18% of abdominal problem, sight problems and myopia, 6% havehypertension and 9% complained from urinary related problems .All the respondents agreed that there should be strictlegislation and regulations for environmental pollution control.5The results of the pollutants measurements revealed that SO2was hardly detected in all the 15 locations, HC as traces in some of thelocations.In the 15 locations NO2 , CO, Pb and SPM levels have meanconcentrations of 1.77 + 0.55ppm, 7.6 + 2.22 ppm, 0.71 + 0.26 μg/m3 and12.90 +13.99 mg/m3 respectively and ranges of 0.5 to 2.5 ppm, 3 to 11ppm, 0.42 to 1.04 μg/m3 and 1.67 to 48.25 mg/m3respectively .The two locations with the highest concentrations of SPM arethe busiest locations in the center of Khartoum in the commercial cityarea. .All the locations pollutants levels were within permissible exposurelevels with the exception of SPM levels at 5 locations where their meanvalues exceeded the threshold TWA value of it which is 10.00 mg/m3.Lead concentration in the specimens of blood and urine fromthe exposed traffic policemen have a mean of 27.90 + 17.04 and 17.44 +0.35 μg/100 ml respectively which are within the normal range of bloodand urine levels i.e. 3 to 55 μg/100 ml and 75 -150μg/100 mlrespectively. However when compared with the control group blood andurine mean concentrations (8.48 +1.77 μg/100 ml and 9.26 + 1.63 μg/100ml respectively ) using the t-test the difference for blood levels wasfound to be not significant (p > 0.05) and for urine the difference wasfound to be significant (p < 0.05).From this study it was concluded that the level of traffic airpollution is rising and its health effects are not yet an occupational threatto the traffic policemen although some of the symptoms they arecomplaining from can be related to the exposure to the air pollutants.Continuos monitoring of the traffic pollution level isrecommended as well as and more efforts for control of it at source andadministrative control measures to reduce the risk of the hazards to thehealth of the traffic policemen.
