CARBON MONOXIDE AIR QUALITY INDEX (AQI-CO) AND SEASONAL TREND (ST-CO) IN CHENNAI TRAFFIC ZONES, INDIA

The present scientific study is to detect the concentration of carbon monoxide and estimate the air quality index (AQI) line with carbon monoxide in the metropolitan Chennai city. The representative monitoring was conducted from January 2018 to December 2018, in the high population locality of Porur (L1), Nerkundram (L2), Thiruvanmiyur (L3), T. Nagar (L4), Vadapalani (L5), Nungambakkam (L6) and Mount road (L7). The multi-gas analyser with Non-dispersive Infra-Red (NDIR) sensor is an automatic and uninterrupted system used for the quantification of CO. In the research, monthly mean assessment of CO indicates, the highest (8.7 mg/m3) and lowest (0.8 mg/m3) level of CO was detected at L5 in the month of October and June respectively, and the annual assessment of CO reveals the observed values are very close to each other at all locations, it implies there is no much different observed between the monitored locations and observed.8 mg/m3 as drifting. The seasonal mean of CO revealed, the highest level of CO detected at L2 during the monsoon and summer season was experienced the lowest value of CO at all locations. The most significant study of AQI-CO is resulted as “moderate category” at L1and L5 during the season of monsoon and pre-monsoon respectively, similar, L2 and L3 laid down under “moderate category” during the season of pre-monsoon, other than these four moderate categories, all location was exhibited “good category” at all seasons. The maximum permissible limit of CO is established as in the term of 8-hours and 1-hour exposure in the NAAQS-CPCB 2009; hence the correlation study between the daily and annual means versus prescribed National specification is questionable. However, the estimated air quality index as per USEPA rule indicates, 86% of the days laid down under “good category” and 14% of the days were a moderate category at selected locations in the Chennai city. Since it was a good category, Chennai was continuously enriching with public and private vehicles, hence the future; all found good categories may extend to "moderate" and observed four moderate categories extend to "unhealthy", hence the governing authority to take appropriate preventing and controlling statistics on the vehicle emission.