Source Apportionment and BTEX Characteristics in an Industrial City: the Case Study of Tehran, Iran

Atmospheric pollution due to Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) are in the ranks of high-risk pollution due to their associated carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health problems. The city of Tehran, capital of Iran, is highly exposed to BTEX pollution majorly due to atmospheric entrapment and high traffic during the cold seasons. In the present study, we sampled BTEX in 12 stations over the city from October 1st 2019 to January 1st 2020. The BTEX stations were located near to air quality stations in various municipality districts in the city. The Pearson correlation analysis of BTEX revealed a significant correlation between temperature and benzene. Moreover, a significant correlation between BTEX species was observed. The results of inverse distance weighting spatial interpolation suggested high BTEX exposure in central areas of the city and relatively lower in the proximity of central municipality districts. Mitigation measures including traffic control programs and the use of enhanced predictivemodels may help to palliate the effects of BTEX exposure.

کلیدواژه ها:

BTEX ، Tehran ، Spatial interpolation ، air pollution