Analysis of the Results of Air Quality Monitoring in the Area of the City of Zenica

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is the largest single environmental risk to public health. According to the latest estimate of this organization, 9 out of 10 people on the planet breathe polluted air. The development of industry in the relatively small Zenica valley reflected on air quality in the city of Zenica. The problem of high air pollution due to emissions of pollutants from industrial sources, traffic, and individual furnaces, burning of environmentally unsuitable fuels containing high sulfur and ash content has been present in the City of Zenica for a long time. In addition, the low wind speed during the year, which ranges up to 1.5 m/s, with unfavorable temperature inversions, causes the concentrations of pollutants in the air to reach alarmingly high values in a short period. In the wider area of the City of Zenica, air quality has been monitored since 1978 in the network of stationary stations. The paper presents results of air quality monitoring which are analyzed at the Institute Kemal Kapetanovic in Zenica for the sampling period from 01.01.2019. to 31.12.2020. years. Air quality monitoring included sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM10) at three locations in the wider area of the city of Zenica. In the wider area of the City of Zenica, air quality has been monitored since 1978 in the network of stationary stations. The paper presents the processed results of air quality monitoring which are analyzed at the Institute Kemal Kapetanovic in Zenica for the sampling period from 01.01.2019 to 31.12.2020. The measured concentrations of pollutants in the ambient air indicate that during the heating season, i.e. the winter months, the air quality in the urban and suburban areas of the city of Zenica is very poor. The data show that the highest hourly concentration of sulfur dioxide was recorded in December at the measuring station AMS Tetovo in the amount of 1100.59 µg/m3, which is located in the settlement next to the metallurgical facilities of the industrial zone Zenica.