Air Quality Monitoring at Seoul, Korea, May 1986-March 1989

Abstract

A routine based air quality monitoring was made for airborne particulate matter at Seoul, Korea. Methods of sampling and analysis of National Air Surveillance Network, Japan were applied to this monitoring. Samplings at the Seoul station were started with a high volume air sampler (Hi-Vol) in May 1986 and a low volume air sampler (Lo-Vol) was added in April 1987. Total Suspended Particles (TSP) and their carboneous, anion and metal components were analyzed for Hi-Vol samples, while multi-elemental neutron activation analysis was made for 31 elements in Lo-Vol samples. In this paper, all data at Seoul prior to March 1989 are presented with some comments on the Hi-Vol data. The contribution of the carbonaceous material to TSP was 26%, and that of the elemental carbon from diesel exhaust emission was 15%, respectively. The atmospheric Pb concentrations in Seoul were 0.20-0.78μg/m³ and higher than those of Tokyo, Japan, by a factor of 5.4; this may be caused by the use sof leaded gasoline for automobiles. The annual variation of TSP concentrations was almost constant at higher levels than those of Japanese cities during the monitoring period.