Title: Study of the weekday-weekend variation of air pollutants in a typical Mediterranean coastal town

Authors: A.N. Riga-Karandinos, C. Saitanis, G. Arapis

Addresses: Laboratory of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera Odos, Athens 11855, Greece. ' Laboratory of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera Odos, Athens 11855, Greece. ' Laboratory of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera Odos, Athens 11855, Greece

Abstract: A study of the air pollution in the Greek coastal town Volos was performed using the available data of the last ten years. Quantile analysis showed that ozone concentrations during weekends were higher by 5–10% in comparison to those on weekdays, while the inverse was observed for the other pollutants, indicating the occurrence of the so called |weekend effect|. Analysis of the maximum values of the high ozone period showed even higher differences. The pollutants NO, NO2, CO, and SO2 were lower during weekends compared to weekdays, by about 30%, 20%, 25% and 10% respectively.

Keywords: air pollutants; weekend effect; ozone; nitrogen oxides; carbon monoxide; sulphur dioxide; quantile analysis; Greece.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2006.010574

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2006 Vol.27 No.4, pp.300 - 312

Published online: 02 Aug 2006 *

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