Exposure to Air Pollutants and Its Relation on Lung Function of Kuala Lumpur Central Ktmb Depot’s Worker

Air pollution is defined as the presence of any air pollutants in the air that have the potential to causehealth effect or cause harm to the environment. This study was conducted to investigate the exposurelevels to air pollutants among workers in a depot, and the relationship between the exposure levelsand the respiratory level of the workers in the depot. The methods used in this study includedmeasuring the concentration of air pollutants namely CO, CO2, total volatile organic compounds(TVOCs), PM10 and two types of heavy metals namely lead (PB) and arsenic (As). Lung functiontest was also done for workers who were exposed. Three sampling points were chosen to measurethe concentrations of air pollutants, namely Loco, power generating car (PGC) and coach lines.Kuala Lumpur Central Office Depot was selected as the control station. Low volume sampler andsampling devices were used to measure the concentration of the air pollutants. This study found thatthere were three air pollutants with concentrations exceeding the standard limits of suspendedparticles PM10, lead, and arsenic. The highest concentrations of PM10 and Pb recorded were in thePGC line with 0.49 ± 0.03 mg/m3 and 160 ± 5.13 μg/m3, respectively. The highest concentration ofAs recorded was in coach line with 36.00 ± 15.50 μg/m3. Statistical test results showed that only theconcentration of As had a significant difference between the sampling stations. For the lung functiontest, the values of forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in the first second(FEV1) for the exposed group were below normal. These findings showed that the depot workers hada lower respiratory level compared to the workers at the depot office. Statistical analysis showed asignificant difference between spirometry diagnosis of employees who had served more than tenyears and spirometry diagnosis of employees who had served for ten years and less. In conclusion,the depot workers who had long exposure to air pollutants had low respiratory levels.

Keywords:

Indoor air pollution , CO , CO2 , TVOC , PM10 , Pb , As , Lung function test