Assessment of Air Quality Index in Annaba

Abstract

In recent years, the world has been witnessing serious ecological imbalances due to the catastrophic situation and the damage caused to the environment. Human activities as waste disposal, cement units, smelting, chemical industries etc., are the main causes of pollution. Air pollution directly affects the human living standards, pollutants requires regular control in view of their direct impact on health, such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter. Algeria adopts international standards to monitor the levels of pollution recorded in Algerian cities and compare them with global levels. In this context, quantitative estimates of polluted waste resulting from some industrial activities have been conducted in order to determine the degree of its danger and the extent of its contribution to the deterioration of the air quality. The monitoring of pollutants allowed us to identify the benefits of comprehensive environmental assessment. We determined the air quality index in Annaba using various pollutants parameters (dust, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide). A ten-point scale ranking of the overall air quality index of pollution accepted in Algeria allows making the differentiated assessment of negative impacts of existing industrial agglomerations on the environment. However, the analysis performed on samples DC1 and DC2 with SEM (TESCAN model VEGA II) and BSE detector (Backscattered Electrons) shows that the particles sizes are estimated to range from hundreds of microns to a few microns, a different morphology and irregular shape. Our results will enable policy makers to appropriate measures to be taken, and which are based mainly on sensitizing economic operators to environmental issues in order to adopt an environmentally friendly industrial system.