- Full citation and abstract?
- Mathur, Ramavati, V. Balaram, M. Satyanarayanan, S. S. Sawant, and S. L. Ramesh. "Anthropogenic Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium Concentrations in Road Dusts from Hyderabad City, India." Environ Earth Sci Environmental Earth Sciences 62.5 (2010): 1085-098. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
- This paper presents the first study of accessing the Pt, Pd and Rh levels in road dusts collected from Hyderabad city, India, as these metals, emitted from automobile catalytic converters, are accumulating in the environment causing concern about human health and ecological risks. Samples were analyzed by ICP-MS following preconcentration by NiS-fire assay and Te coprecipitation. Pt (1.5–43 ng/g), Pd (1.2–58 ng/g) and Rh (0.2– 14.2 ng/g) concentrations obtained were above upper crust values, but were lower when compared with several other cities around the world. Dust samples from road junctions and traffic signals with heavy and erratic traffic flow showed higher PGE levels than those from roads with low and free flow traffic suggesting that traffic flow conditions greatly influenced emission of PGE from the catalyst. Significant correlation of Pt, Pd and Rh indicate a common source for these metals. PGE were also positively correlated with Ce, Zr, Hf and Y. These positive inter-element correlations identified traffic as the main source of PGE emission to the roadway environment. The results obtained indicate to an appreciable increase in auto catalyst-derived PGE. In consideration of the adverse effects of PGE, monitoring their level and transformation paths is of prime importance.
- Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project.
- Ramavati Mathur - She is a senior scientist at the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad. Her expertise is analytical chemistry and geochemistry.
- V. Balaram - Can't find.
- M. Satyanarayanan - Computer scientist from Carnegie Mellon. Currently a professor of C.S at Carengie Mellon as well.
- S. S. Sawant - Can't find.
- S. L. Ramesh - Can't find.
- What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?
- That road traffic (anthropogenic) is clearly the largest source of platinum group elements (PGEs) in roadway environments.
- Locations where there was more stop/start traffic had higher concentrations of PGEs. This would mainly characterize intersections closest to downtown areas.
- That PGEs are accumulating in the environment, as the driver population grows and the city of Hyderabad continues to grow as well.
- That PGEs are a known allergenic to humans, with potentially bigger health effects that warrant investigation. Given that PGEs also tend to bio-accumulate in the environment, they pose even broader ecological issues.
- That using Hyderabad as a model city, PGEs could be issues all over the world, especially in cities with a high driver population. The researchers attribute part of the high PGE levels to the lack of a decent public transportation system in the city.
- Describe at least three ways that the argument is supported.
- The researchers state that poor road conditions and road rules in general produce a lot of gridlock in the city, causing air pollution from vehicle emission to be a real problem. Since it is known that PGEs are put in the environment from automobiles and that they actually produce more during stop/start traffic, it would be assumed that they would be highest near more trafficked zones. Sediment analysis confirmed this.
- The researchers compared the values they saw here to other places in the world and found that they are similar to that of other large cities all across the world.
- Based on sediment analysis, they confirmed that it wasn’t necessarily roads that had the most vehicular traffic, but the roads that had the most stop/start traffic that had the highest PGE levels.
- What three (or more) quotes capture the message of the article or report?
- The PGE levels determined in road dust samples from Hyderabad clearly point to traffic as a main source of PGE contamination in the roadway environment.
- Further work is, therefore, necessary to regularly monitor the PGE levels in the environment, so as to assess their spatial distribution and long-term accumulation patterns in different environmental compartments.
- Several studies on PGE in environmental samples, such as soils, road dust, airborne particulate matter and their impact on environment and the biosphere have been carried out from different places across the world like Australia, USA, UK, Germany and other European countries…
- What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report?
- The researchers picked study areas along major roads in Hyderabad, but made sure to get a wide range of sampling points that included less traveled roads and major intersections.
- They then took sediment samples from these areas and analyzed them using an ICP-MS Perkin-Elmer Sciex for sample analysis. This provided weights for the compounds present. This data was then used to calculate various statistical data about what PGEs were present in the soil and how they compare to other places around the globe.
- How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?
- This article does not out rightly discuss equity issues in the city, but I can tell just by how they describe the city the types of issues that they are probably dealing with.
- The researchers describe how there are poor road conditions, with little to no sidewalk and drivers who are often impatient and undisciplined when it comes to safe driving techniques. This immediately puts people who do not drive, namely the poor, at risk of being hit by drivers or being in some other serious accident.
- Additionally, as Hyderabad has grown to become an industrial center of the region, which in turn has created more drivers, the air quality has decreased significantly. While the state of Andhra Pradesh has done monitoring of PM10, PM2.5, and other substances, it is the poor who have disproportionally suffered from the poorer air quality. They get all of the problems a growing city has, while receiving next to none of the gains.
- Where has this article or report been referenced or discussed? (In some journals, you can see this in a sidebar.)
- Sobrova, Pavlina, Josef Zehnalek, Vojtech Adam, Miroslava Beklova, and Rene Kizek. "The effects on soil/water/plant/animal systems by platinum group elements." Central European Journal of Chemistry 10, no. 5 (2012): 1369-1382.
- Balaram, V., C. T. Kamala, Ramavathi Mathur, A. Sreenivasa Rao, and M. Satyanarayanan. "PGE in road dust/top soil from major Indian cities: Implications on human health and environment." In On a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources, pp. 85-107. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013.
- Ribeiro, A. P., A. M. G. Figueiredo, J. E. S. Sarkis, M. A. Hortellani, and B. Markert. "First study on anthropogenic Pt, Pd, and Rh levels in soils from major avenues of São Paulo City, Brazil." Environmental monitoring and assessment184, no. 12 (2012): 7373-7382.
- Can you learn anything from the article or report’s bibliography that tells us something about how the article or report was produced?
- From what I can tell, what these researchers studied was not groundbreaking. Scientists have been studying PGE levels in cities all over the world for at least 20 years. This does appear to be the only research done in an Asian super city however. So if we were to assume that Herderabad could be a representation of fast growing cities in India or other parts of Asia, it would mean that PGE, while certainly an environmental contaminant, is not a “huge” issue. Of course Hyderabad also only has a population of around 7 million, large by U. S. standards, but not so much by Asian standards.
- What three points, details or references from the text did you follow up on to advance your understanding of how air pollution science has been produced and used in governance and education in different settings?
- I was interested in seeing what the actual health impacts of PGE exposure was, since the researchers of this article did not really go into much detail about it. What I found, through various sources, is that we’re still unsure as to what the exact impact on is. Exposure may cause allergic reactions, but I have yet to find an article that goes into detail about what type of reaction people typically have. Breaking out in hives or a rash would be much worse then getting a stuffy nose or watery eyes, but both would be considered allergic reaction.
- Even when it came to the side effect of “bio-accumulation” there was little to no real evidence of what this entails. I would assume that after a long enough time it would produce abnormalities such as certain cancers, but how long does it take to get to a dangerous level? It most likely depends on the type of organism we would be looking at.
- For a problem that seems to affect every major city that experiences a lot of traffic, it appears that this issue is not as well researched as it should be.
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