Indicative levels of PM in the ambient air in the surrounding villages of the copper smelter complex Bor, Serbia

While information on air pollution in the form of particulate matter (PM) has been monitored for longer period for EU countries, availability of PM data sets in the Western Balkan countries including the Republic of Serbia are still limited. Studies, related to the particulate pollution research, have been only carried out in the past several years. The main objective of this paper is to present PM levels measured in the ambient air in the surrounding settlements of the Copper Smelter Complex Bor. Also, one of the goals is a comparison of PM levels in the surrounding settlements with those measured in Bor town. The ambient levels of PM particles (PM10, PM2.5) were measured by automatic PM monitors at 4 nearby settlements: Slatina, O trelj, Krivelj and Brezonik in the time interval from 2005 to 2010. According to the measurement results, PM10 and PM2.5 levels in the ambient air were higher in the cold, heating, (October-March) than in the warm no heating period (April-September). The exceeding of the daily limit of PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentration levels was observed at all measuring points. A higher number of exceedances were detected in the cold period. The results indicate that there is a significant seasonal change in the level of fine particles at all measuring places in surroundings. In addition, the PM levels in Bor town are more influenced by the air pollution from the Copper Smelter Complex than settlements in the vicinity, where the PM concentrations were greatly influenced by the presence of domestic heating in the cold period. [Projekat Ministarstva nauka Republike Srbije, br. III42008: Evaluation of Energy Performances and Indoor Environment Quality of Educational Buildings in Serbia with Impact to Health i br. III41028: “An Integral Study to Identify the Regional Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors for the Common Noncommunicable Diseases in the Human Population of Serbia]