A BASELINE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF HAZE FOR AIR POLLUTION MITIGATION. Kristy Wong

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A BASELINE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF HAZE FOR AIR

POLLUTION MITIGATION

Kristy Wong

Bachelor of Engineering with Honours (Civil Engineering)

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A BASELINE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF HAZE FOR AIR POLLUTION MITIGATION

KRISTY WONG

This project is submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Engineering with Honours (Civil Engineering)

Faculty of Engineering

UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SARAWAK 2006

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Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

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BORANG PENYERAHAN LAPORAN PROJEK TAHUN AKHIR

Judul: A BASELINE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF HAZE FOR AIR POLLUTION

MITIGATION SESI PENGAJIAN: 2002-2006 Saya KRISTY WONG (HURUF BESAR)

mengaku membenarkan tesis ini disimpan di Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Hakmilik kertas projek adalah di bawah nama penulis melainkan penulisan sebagai projek bersama dan dibiayai oleh UNIMAS, hakmiliknya adalah kepunyaan UNIMAS.

2. Naskhah salinan di dalam bentuk kertas atau mikro hanya boleh dibuat dengan kebenaran bertulis daripada penulis.

3. Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, UNIMAS dibenarkan membuat salinan untuk pengajian mereka. 4. Kertas projek hanya boleh diterbitkan dengan kebenaran penulis. Bayaran royalti adalah mengikut kadar

yang dipersetujui kelak.

5. * Saya membenarkan/tidak membenarkan Perpustakaan membuat salinan kertas projek ini sebagai bahan pertukaran di antara institusi pengajian tinggi.

6. ** Sila tandakan ( X ) di mana kotak yang berkenaan

SULIT (Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972).

x TERHAD (Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/ badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan).

TIDAK TERHAD

Disahkan oleh

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (TANDATANGAN PENYELIA) Alamat tetap: PETI SURAT 176

89308 RANAU Ir.Dr Law Puong Ling ( Nama Penyelia ) SABAH

Tarikh: Tarikh:

CATATAN * Potong yang tidak berkenaan.

** Jika Kertas Projek ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada pihak berkuasa/

organisasi berkenaan dengan menyertakan sekali tempoh kertas projek. Ini perlu dikelaskan sebagai SULIT atau TERHAD.

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This final year project attached here;

Title : A Baseline Study on the Impact of Haze for Air Pollution Mitigation

Author’s name : Kristy Wong Matric Number : 8445

Has been read and approved by;

_______________________ __________________

Ir.Dr Law Puong Ling (Date)

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UNIMAS/15/02/02…… 27 November 2006

Pustakawan

Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Puan,

Laporan Projek Tahun Akhir

Laporan pelajar ini adalah dikategorikan sebagai ‘terhad’ selama 2 tahun. Ini adalah kerana maklumat yang terkandung merupakan maklumat sebenar jabatan kerajaan di mana kajian di buat.

Sekian, terima kasih.

“BERKHIDMAT UNTUK NEGARA”

Yang benar,

Dr.Siti Halipah Ibrahim

Ketua Jabatan Kejuruteraan Sivil

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Dedicated to my beloved family and in memory of my father

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Much gratitude goes to my supervisor, Ir Dr Law Puong Ling for his thoughtful advice and assistance toward the completion of this project. Sincere thanks are also expresses for those department and person which supported me in providing data and valuable input; in particular the Department of Environment and Dr Law Puong Ling. My special appreciations are dedicated with much love to my mother, siblings especially to my brother who had supported me a lot. I am thankful too for extremely wonderful friends for their encouragement, kindness and love. Lastly, special thanks go to all the lecturers and staff of Faculty of Engineering for their kindness and co-operation throughout my studies in UNIMAS.

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LIST OF CONTENTS

CONTENT PAGE NUMBER

DEDICATION ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

ABSTRACT iv

LIST OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES xi ABBREVIATIONS xii NOTATIONS xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.0 GENERAL 1 1.1 STUDY OBJECTIVE 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 GENERAL 4

2.1 AIR POLLUTION 4

2.2 EFFECT OF AIR POLLUTION ON HUMAN HEALTH 8

2.3 HAZE 12

2.3.1 Cause of Haze 12

2.3.2 Effect of Haze 14

2.4 AIR QUALITY 18

2.4.1 Malaysia ambient Air Quality Guidelines

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CHAPTER 3: STUDY METHODOLOGY

3.0 GENERAL 26 3.1 STUDY DESIGN 26 3.2 STUDY AREA 29 3.3 STUDY POPULATION 29 3.4 STUDY SAMPLE 29 3.5 AIR QUALITY 30

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.0 GENERAL 33

4.1 RESULTS 34

4.1.1 Non Haze periods 34

4.1.2 Haze periods 37

4.1.3 Hospital Data 39

4.2 DISCUSSION 36

4.2.1 Particulate Matter (PM10) 41

4.2.2 Sulphur dioxide (SO2) 42

4.2.3 Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) 43

4.2.4 Carbon monoxide (CO) 44

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.0 CONCLUSION 46 5.1 RECOMMENDATION 48 REFERENCES 50 APPENDIX I 54 APPENDIX II 61 APPENDIX III 73

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE NUMBER

2.1 Air Contaminant 5

2.2 Source of air pollution 6

2.3 Specific Air Pollutant and associated Health Affect 10

2.4 Three major air pollution episodes 11

2.5 Summary of major air biomass pollutant 13 2.6 Combined effect estimates of daily mean PM10 17

2.7 Malaysia Ambient Air Quality Guideline (MAAQG) 19

2.8 Air Pollution Index (API) 19

2.9 U.S Ambient Air Quality Criteria for PM10 23

2.10 U.S Ambient Air Quality Criteria for SO2 24

4.1 Records of daily ambient concentrations of PM10 for the months August, September

and October (1996 non haze) in Kuching

Sarawak 35

4.2 Records of daily ambient concentrations of SO2 for the months August, September

Sarawak 35

4.3 Records of daily ambient concentrations of NO2 for the months August, September

Sarawak 35

4.4 Records of daily ambient concentrations of CO for the months August, September and October (1996 non haze) in Kuching

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ix 4.5 Records of daily ambient concentrations

of PM10 for the months August, September

Sarawak 36

Sarawak 37

4.8 Records of daily ambient concentrations of CO for the months August, September and October (1998 non haze) in Kuching

Sarawak 37

4.9 Records of daily ambient concentrations of PM10 for the months August, September

and October (1997 haze) in Kuching

Sarawak 38

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4.12 Records of daily ambient concentrations of CO for the months August, September and October (1997 haze) in Kuching

Sarawak 39

4.13 Hospitalizations distribution for asthmatic patients

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE NUMBER

2.1 Source of air pollution in Malaysia 7

2.2 Human respiratory system 8

3.1 Conceptual Frame Study 28

3.2 Flowchart of data management on field

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NOTATIONS

µg/m3 - microgram per cube ppm - part per million

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ABBREVIATIONS

DOE - Department of Environment

MEQR - Malaysia Environment Quality Report PM10 - Particulate Matter

SO2 - Sulphur dioxide

CO - Carbon Monoxide

NO2 - Nitrogen dioxide

MAAQG - (Recommended) Malaysia Ambient Air Quality Guideline API - Air Pollution Index

NAAQS - National Ambient Air Quality Standards USEPA - United State Environment Protection Agency WHO - World Health Organization

EPSM - Environment Protection Society Malaysia ICD - International Classification of Disease DAS - Data Acquisitions Systems

ASMA - Alam Sekitar Malaysia S/B

CAQM - Continuous Air Quality Monitoring QA - Quality Assurance

QC - Quality Control

URTI - Upper Respiratory Tract Infection AHD - Arteriosclerotic Heart Disease IHD - Ischemic Heart Disease

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ABSTRACT

A baseline study on the impact of haze for air pollution mitigation looks into the proposed years 1996 and 1998 non haze and 1997 haze periods that taking place in Kuching area and its relationships of elevated hospitalizations of Kuching’s population during the same periods. This study will be focused on collating, identifying and overview a selective criteria air pollutant such as PM10,SO2 ,NO2 and CO and the hospitalizations databases within age category (0-18,19-39,40-64 and 65+) where a disease selected for this study is asthma. This study is expected to be used/adopted as a baseline for future study to predict a significant impact of particular air pollutant that form haze type air pollution with human healths. Nevertheless, this study also can be used to determine appropriate measures to mitigate the impact of air pollution as well as for future planning of air pollution management.

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ABSTRAK

Kajian dasar mengenai kesan jerebu dalam mengatasi pencemaran udara dijalankan dengan memilih kawasan Kucing sebagai kawasan kajian memandangkan kawasan ini merupakan kawasan yang pernah didaftarkan sebagai kawasan yang paling teruk di landa jerebu pada tahun 1997.Jerebu pada tahun 1997 dan bukan jerebu pada tahun 1996 dan 1998 di kawasan Kuching telah di ambil kira untuk mengenalpasti perhubungannya dalam peningkatan populasi penduduk di kawasan Kuching mendapatkan rawatan di hospital awam. Fokus utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengumpul, mengenalpasti dan mengimbas kembali 4 jenis pencemar udara seperti PM10,SO2 , NO2 dan CO dan

maklumat mengenai rawatan berdasarkan kategori umur(0-18,19-39,40-64 and 65+) di mana deskripsi penyakit yang dipilih ialah penyakit asma. Kajian ini boleh digunakan sebagai asas untuk kajian lanjutan mengenai kesan pencemar udara dalam bentuk jerebu kepada kesihatan manusia. Di samping itu, kajian ini juga boleh digunakan untuk mengenalpasti langkah-langkah yang sesuai untuk mengurangkan kesan pencemaran udara dan untuk merangka perancangan berkaitan dengan pengurusan pencemaran udara pada masa hadapan.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.0 GENERAL

Major problems that indicate air pollution is recently concern in conjunction of some series of haze episode in Southeast Asia. Malaysia alone has experienced the worst haze episode ever before due to the forest and plantation fire from the Southern Sumatera and central Kalimantan, Indonesia on 1997 (Rafia Afroz et al.,2003). As a consequence, the state of Sarawak which is border with Kalimantan has been heavily hit and increase the Air Pollution Index level to 839 in Kuching on 23 September 1997(Foo,n.d) that exceeded the 24 hours Malaysian Air Quality Guideline of 150µg/m3 as well as exceeded the hazardous level of Malaysia Air Pollution Index (DOE,2001).

Undoubtedly, particular pollutants in haze seem to be known as a harmful disaster that causes severe effect to human health. Study revealed that Air Pollutant Index (API) in Sarawak is associated with symptoms such as conjunctivitis and respiratory disease like upper respiratory infection, bronchitis and asthma in which they are likely to be aggravated due elevated concentrations of pollutant namely particulate

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matter (PM10)( as cited by Daniel Murdiyarso et al.,1998). Moreover, increasing of

respiratory patient reported for hospital admission is mostly come from the heavily impacted area during the peak period of haze (as cited by Rafia Afroz et al., 2003;Yudanarso Dawud, 1998).

1.1 STUDY OBJECTIVE

The objectives of a baseline study on the impact of haze for air pollution mitigation are as listed below:-

1.1.1 To review local and foreign literatures on the epidemiology of the criteria air pollutants (PM10, SO2, NO2 and CO) and their relationship on human

health.

1.1.2 To collate the daily ambient concentration of the 4 air pollutant in

Kuching area from the Department of Environment for the years 1996 and 1998 non haze and 1997 haze periods from the month of August throughout October.

1.1.3 To collate the hospitalization databases recorded by the Public Health Department of Sarawak for the years 1996 and 1998 non haze and 1997 haze periods from the month of August throughout October.

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1.1.4 To identify the relationships between daily variations in the 4 air

pollutant with variations in the hospitalizations data within age category and selective disease of asthma.

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE RIVIEW

2.0 GENERAL

This chapter will generally discuss about air pollution, its sources, its effect on human health and air quality. Uncontrolled biomass burning which form haze type air pollution impacted Southern Asia will be also overview in this chapter.

2.1 AIR POLLUTION

Air pollution occurs as a consequence of natural contaminant as well as anthropogenic contaminant by human activities. For instances, a natural contaminant including a volcanic ash, dust storm comprises a particulate matter, aerosol and trees that releasing a hydrocarbon and pollens grain (Richard et al.,1994).Various gases and vapor that indicate as natural contaminant are stated in Table 2.1.

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Table 2.1: Air Contaminant (Source:Rao et al.,1993)

The anthropogenic air pollutions are from a continuous industrial activities as well as automobile emissions. These including human activities such as open burning, fire place, stove and barbeque grills. Table 2.2 listed the air pollution sources respectively.

Groups Examples

Sulphur compounds SO2,SO3,H2S,mercaptanns

Nitrogen compounds NO,NO,NH3

Oxygen compounds O3,CO,CO2

Halogen compounds HF,HCI

Organic compounds Aldehydes,hydrocarbons

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Table 2.2: Source of air pollution (Sources: Chhatwal et al., 1993)

* Expressed as tons NO2

Gas

Sources Quantity

(×106 tons per annum) Anthropogenic Sources (Major Pollutant Sources) Natural

Source Pollution Natural

Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)

Combustions of coal and oil, roasting of sulphide ores Volcanoes 146 6-12 Hydrogen Sulphide(H2S) Chemical processes, sewage treatment Volcanoes, biological action in swamps 3 30-100 Carbon Monoxide(CO) Combustion, principally motor car exhausts Forest fires Terpene reaction 300 >3000 Nitrogen Oxides(NO2) Combustion Bacterial action in soils 50* 60-270* Ammonia (NH3) Waste treatment Biological decay 4 100-200 Nitrous Oxide(N2O) Indirectly from use of nitrogenous fertilizers Biological action in soil >17 100-450 Hydrocarbon Combustions, exhausts, chemical processes Biological processes 88 CH4:300-1600 Terpenes:200 Carbon Dioxide(CO2) Combustions Biological decay, ocean release 1.5×104 15×104