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Estimation of particulate matter from visibility in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Lack of daily data on airborne particles has been a common problem in an air pollution research. To deal with this problem, a regression model was developed to estimate daily PM10 concentration using visibility in Bangkok from 1992 to 1997, based on 1092 visibility/PM10 pair-observations on low humidity days (humidity≤76.5%). Visibility was significantly and inversely associated with PM10 (r=0.71), after adjusting for minimum temperature and winter indicator variable. The R2 of the model was 0.51.

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Abbreviations

PM2.5:

fine particulates less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter

PM10:

fine particulates less than 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter

TSP:

total suspended particle

μg/m3:

micrograms per cubic meter

μm:

microns

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Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this article are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The research described in this article has been subject to EPA's peer and administrative review and it has been approved for publication.

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Correspondence to NITAYA VAJANAPOOM.

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VAJANAPOOM, N., SHY, C., NEAS, L. et al. Estimation of particulate matter from visibility in Bangkok, Thailand. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 11, 97–102 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jea.7500148

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