Air

Bangladesh Environment Network

Autos fouling Dhaka air with cancer-causing compounds

Courtesy - The Independent (27th August, 1998)

Article submitted to BEN by

Dr. Mahbubur Rahman

Postdoctoral fellow

Kyoto University School of Medicine

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Automobile exhausts fill the air in Dhaka city with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) beyond tolerable limits. Some of the compounds cause cancer. Prof. Abul Hussam of George Mason University, Virginia, USA this month detected 200 organic compounds and identified 35 of those by analysing four air samples collected from the Shewrapara area of the city recently.

It was the first such advanced analysis of air quality ever done in Bangladesh. The air samples were analysed at the time of installing ultra-modern equipment at a privately set-up research,

development and technology centre in the area on August 18 and 19.

The tests show that exhausts of auto-rickshaws contain VOCs four to more than seven times beyond the allowable limit. The ambient air in Shewrapara contain these compounds close to the threshold limit, the tests reveal.

The air quality analyses have been carried out on behalf of the "Intronics Technology Centre" being set up with financial support from Prof. Mohammad Alauddin, Wagner College and City University of New York, USA.

Prof. Alauddin and Prof. Hussam felt the urgency of setting up an advanced centre of research in analytical chemistry in Dhaka when they visited Bangladesh twice between 1989 and 1993 under the TOKTEN(Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals) of the UN Development Programme.

The centre having the capacity to test water and air quality, detect toxic trace constituents in those; and trace element analysis of blood, urine, hair, skin lesions and other tissues; would be formally launched soon. Prof. Amir Hussain Khan, pioneer of trace analysis in Bangladesh is the academic adviser to the centre.

Prof. Hussam said the analyses of exhausts of auto-rickshaws showed the presence of toluene, a cancer causing agent, up to 200,000 micrograms per cubic metre as against the threshold limit of 2000 micrograms per cubic metre.

The 35 volatile organic compounds identified included cancer causing agents: benzene, toluene, octane, ethylbenzene, 1-isocyanato-3-methoxybenzene, o,p-xylene, propylbenzene, imethylbenzene and butylbenzene.

The tests, however, were conducted at a relatively less vehicular traffic-congested area in the metropolis. A much higher concentration of air pollutants would be found if tests are carried out at

heavily automobile congested areas like Hatkhola, Shapla crossing, Sonargaon crossing and Farm Gate Prof. Alauddin said.

Prof. Hussam who is the technical adviser to the centre said that apart from automobile exhausts, natural gas (if cookers are on), chemical processing plants and biogenic sources contributed to the extremely bad VOC pollution of Dhaka's air.

Prof. Amir Hussain Khan and Prof. Alauddin said their centre had the latest available technology and could be utilised not for only trace analyses in air, water, blood, urine, hair, skin and other tissues, but also confirmation tests. Prof. Hussam shared the results of the air quality tests with scientists of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) on Tuesday. Director of BAEC's Dhaka Centre, Sanowar Ullah, was present among others.