Lead levels in the airborne dust particulates of an urban city of central India

The dust fall-out rate, distribution pattern and concentration of lead in t he particulate fall-out matters in urban Raipur city covering an area of 16 0 km(2) during one hydrological year i.e. November 1996-June 1997, has been described. The entire city has been divided into 6 zones comprising of ind ustrial, commercial, residential and heavy traffic areas. A monthly collect ion and analysis of dust fall-out rate between 3.0(+/- 0.1) and 91.3(+/- 1. 2) metric tonnes km(-2) month(-1) were observed at all 6 sampling sites. Th e total annual flux of lead in the fall-out of the city at different zones is in the range 0.0065-0.4304 kg km(-2) yr(-1). The results show that dust fall- out and the lead levels both are at higher magnitudes in winter and a utumn. These large levels of air pollutants have also been correlated with some meteorological parameters like relative humidity and temperature, and strong positive correlations have been observed.