Iranian Journal of

Background & Objectives: Determining the impacts of air pollution in cities is facing two major challenges first, the limited data on the health effects of pollutants, and secondly, the lack of information on exposure to air pollutants and their concentration. This is an applied-observational carried out to determine the concentration, seasonal changes, and to estimate the health impacts attributed to the particulate matters in Tabriz during September 2012 to July 2013. Materials and Methods: The particulate matters were sampled using high volume sampler and were analyzed using portable HAZ-DUST EPAM-5000. The health impacts of particulate matterswere estimated using AirQ software developed by W.H.O. Results: The annual mean concentration of TSP, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and PM₁ in the urban sampling site were 139, 83, 38, and 27 µg/m³ respectively. In addition, these concentrations were 178, 110, 40, and 27µg/m³ in industrial area. The average of PM₁₀/TSP, PM_2.5/PM₁₀, PM₁/PM₁₀, and PM₁/PM_2.5 ratio level was 0.6, 0.48, 0.33, and 0.7 in the urban areas and 0.61, 0.37, 0.28, and 0.77 in the industrial areas respectively. The total mortalities associated with the TSP, PM₁₀, and PM_2.5 concentrations were estimated as 327, 363, and 360 respectively. Nevertheless, the calculated cardiovascular mortality for TSP and PM₁₀ were estimated to be 202 and 227 respectively. Conclusion: This research found that the concentrations of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were 73 and 69% more than National Standard and 8 and 5% more than USEPA Standards respectively. In Tabriz, especially industrial area, the soils of surrounding ground and re-suspension of particles fromcontaminated soils have a significant contribution to particulate emissions.