Characterization and identification of heavy metal elements (PM10) sampled from urban and rural schools in Kelantan

Air pollution is define as the presence of any pollutant in the air that are potential to cause health effect or cause harm to the environment. A study was conducted to investigate the exposure of air pollutants in school environment at two different area. Location of the sampling involves two different selected schools, Sekolah Kebangsaan Batu Melintang located in rural area and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kubang Kerian 1, located in urban area. The method used in this study includes sampling of 15 air pollutant samples in each location from April to June 2016 using Lower Volume sampler (LVS). Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) was used to determine the amount of heavy metal elements (Zinc, Lead and Cadmium) in outdoor air dust. The highest mass concentration of recorded at school in rural area was 86.051 μg/m3 whereas at the school in urban area was 99.550 μg/m3.The mean mass concentration of at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kubang Kerian 1 (52.527 μg/m3) was higher than Sekolah Kebangsaan Batu Melintang (39.760 μg/m3).The mass concentration of is still below the permissible limits (150 μg/m3) set up by Malaysia Department of Environment. The heavy metal at rural area was found to follow the order Pb > Zn > Cd while in urban area Zn > Cd with absent of Pb. High concentration of and heavy metals due to the high traffic density, high population movement, and the anthropogenic activities surrounding. Therefore, this study will will help to provide the quantitative measurements of and heavy metal elements which will help to assess the air quality in Malaysia.