Journal of Environment and Health Science Journal of Environment and Health Science Journal of Environment and Health Science Journal of Environment and Health Science 2378-6841Ommega Online PublishersNew Jersey, USA140710.15436/2378-6841.17.1407Research ArticleRoadside BTEX Profiles in the Atmosphere at a Terai Region of Northern IndiaRoadside BTEX Profiles in the Atmosphere at a Terai Region of Northern IndiaAMITMASIHEnvironmental Research Lab Department of Chemistry St Andrew s College Gorakhpur IndiaEditor* E-mail: amitmasih10@yahoo.com
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
20170205201732JEHS-17-RA-140708032017270420172017Creative Commons Attribution LicenseThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. nbsp emsp emsp Transportation has turned into an escalating source that causes severe adverse effects on air quality Over the last few decades there has been a dramatic increase in the number of publications on traffic-related volatile organic compounds VOCs which indicates that automobiles in urban regions are the dominant source of benzene toluene ethylbenzene and xylene commonly called BTEX A monitoring program was designed and implemented to characterize roadside levels of BTEX during November 2014 ndash February 2015 at Gorakhpur ndash a terai belt of north India on both weekdays and weekends Samples of the air were collected at two sites namely Nausad Traffic Junction NTJ and Golghar Traffic Junction GTJ Besides this air samples were also collected at different distances 3 m 10 m 20 m 30 m respectively from the road BTEX were sampled by SKC activated charcoal tubes and analyzed by GC ndash FID Gas Chromatography- Flame Ionization Detector Total BTEX concentration ranged from 9 8 - 61 3 mu g m-3 at roadside sites Gorakhpur The total mean BTEX at Golghar traffic junction GTJ and Nausad traffic junction NTJ were 36 6 mu g m-3 and 18 1 mu g m-3 respectively The concentrations of BTEX were plotted against distance from the road The coefficient of determination R sup2 values for benzene toluene ethylbenzene and xylene were found to be 0 65 0 98 0 98 and 0 92 respectively The average T B and X E ratios of both the sites together were 2 3 and 1 2 respectively The higher traffic volume and traffic congestion on weekdays lead to remarkably higher BTEX levels than those observed on Sunday at both the sites Toluene was found to be dominant followed by benzene xylene and ethylbenzene Appropriate traffic management and vehicle emission control should be applied to reduce the VOC pollution in the city 10