ESTIMATION OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAH’s) PRESENT IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF URBANIZED REGION BADAMI BAGH IN LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The emerging mega city of Lahore has been progressing by leaps and bounds in last
two decades which is directly related to an immense increase of number of vehicles and power
generation systems using fossil fuels. The present study entails the quantification and evaluation of
potential risk due to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) which is one of the known organic
pollutants from vehicular, power generation system’s exhaust and other industrial activities. The
samples of Total Suspended Particulate Matters (TSPM) were collected from various urbanized sites
present at Badami Bagh, Lahore, Pakistan for the estimation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The
technique used for quantification of PAH’s was Gas Chromatography. The concentration of mean total
of PAH was 746.60 ng/m3. Dibenzo(a,h) Anthracene was found to be in highest concentration of
142.35 ng/m3 among all the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons under investigation.