Snow in the cities as an indicator of air pollution caused by traffic

Air pollution in cities caused by traffic is an important environmental and health issue worldwide. Air pollution caused by traffic exceeds air pollution from other anthropogenic sources, such as industrial, various heat supply and residential areas. This study analyzes a wide range of pollutants in snowpacks at different intensity roads in one of the largest cities in Latvia in Jelgava. Snow samples are taken from three sampling points at distance of 1 m, 10 m, and 20 m from the roadway. In the study, various metals, namely lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), silicon (Si), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr) are analyzed in the study. Samples are acidified to 1% HNO₃, then left for 3 days and filtered through a paper filter. ICP-OES spectroscopy „iCAP 7000” is used for analysis. Most pollutants show similar trends; higher concentrations of pollutants are observed at a distance of 1 m from the roadway compared to samples taken from further sampling points. Concentrations of pollutants decrease significantly at distance of 10 m. Comparing the concentrations of Pb, Zn, and V at a distance of 1m from the roadway and at a distance of 10 m from the roadway, the concentrations of pollutants decrease by 6 to 11 times. The highest concentrations of Cu, Cr, Mn, Pb, V, Zn are located on roadway Jelgava-Riga about 4 km from city center of Jelgava.