A Quantitative Assessment of Air Particulate Matter Concentration and Its Correlation with the Climatic Factor of Dinajpur City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) is the air pollutant that poses the most significant risk to human health compared to other measured criteria pollutants. One of our main goals was to assess the quantities of particulate matter (0.3-10µm) in the Dinajpur municipality's sensitive zones, roads, and residential and commercial buildings. Light scattering particle counters, the Extech VPC-300, were used to measure particulate matter and climatic data at 26 distinct locations in Dinajpur. R 4.2.2 and the data analysis tool in Microsoft Excel were utilized for the statistical analysis. The highest values for PM 0.3, 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5, and 10 µm are 335195, 138118, 37965, 12995, 2087, and 2507 and medium value is accordingly 221304, 71873, 16681, 3393, 361 and 454, respectively. The PM 0.5 μm particle range, which includes 12 samples, is highly concerned and getting closer to the hazardous red polluted zone. Most places of PM 2.5 µm exceed the 2000 particles, which are hazardous for people. The link between climatic variables and particulate matter (PM 0.5-10 µm) significantly correlated with temperature. Humidity and PM (0.3-10 µm) measurements in the study area show a negative correlation. According to observations, factors contributing to the high PM concentration include excessive human movement, combustion byproducts of black smoke, road dust, waste, garbage in every possible place, and rice mill industry emissions.