Physical effect of air pollution on leave and bark surface near Cement Plant in Perlis

Abstract

Air pollution is one of the major problems since it is effect the health of occupant and nearby residential of cement plant. Perlis is one of the lowest rates of air pollution. Even though it is the lowest rate, it should be consider to prevent air pollution and to overcome more clean air in the future. The purpose of this study are to study the use of SEM & EDX method on leave and bark surface for air pollution distribution, to investigate the physical effect of cement plant emission to surrounding, and to determine the comparison between SEM/EDX and air pollution equipment (MiniVol Portable Air Sampler). A new method (SEM/EDX) is used to measure air pollutant near to the cement plant in Bukit Keteri, Chuping, Perlis. An energy dispersive X-ray microanalyzer (EDX) connected to a scanning electron microscopic (SEM) was used to measure the amount of several elements on the leave and bark surface. The samples were collected with different distance from source and different height from the ground. In this case, MiniVol Portable Air Sample was used to measure particulate matter (PM10) near to the cement plant. The content of Ca was founded in the result. The percent of Ca were increased due to increase of the distance. The average result by using MiniVol Portable Air Sample is 92.60 μg/m³. The result is moderate, moderate means that the area is not polluted but, need to be control. Based from Air Pollution Index (API), the range of moderate is between 50-100.