Prashant Rajput

Banaras Hindu University | BHU · Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development

Background Asthma and atopic dermatitis (AD) are chronic allergic conditions, along with allergic rhinitis and food allergy and cause high morbidity and mortality both in children and adults. This study aims to evaluate the global, regional, national, and temporal trends of the burden of asthma and AD from 1990 to 2019 and analyze their association...

Climate change-driven temperature increases worsen air quality in places where coal combustion powers electricity for air conditioning. Climate solutions that substitute clean and renewable energy in place of polluting coal and promote adaptation to warming through reflective cool roofs can reduce cooling energy demand in buildings, lower power sec...

Climate change is widely recognized as a major threat to public health. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR6), assessing different Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios (SSP1-1.9, SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5), projects that relative to 1850–1900, the global temperature is rising and would...

South Asia is one of the hot-spots of extreme heat events and associated health risks. As heat waves continue to get harsher due to climate change, South Asia's exposure to them is probably going to increase. After a heatwave in 2010, Ahmedabad implemented South Asia’s first heat action plan (HAP). The Ahmedabad HAP can serve as a model for other c...

Atmospheric aerosols, soon after their emission, may experience changes in its chemical composition, mass concentration, size, and its optical properties. These changes are dynamic in nature and occur over a short period of time. Since aerosols play a critical role in human health effects, cloud microphysics, hydrological cycle and climate perturba...

The Asian cities are experiencing unprecedented climate, poor air quality, and human health due to existing rapid urbanization, air pollution, unsustainable land-use planning, and industrialization. Therefore, air pollution is now one of the biggest threats to human health in urban cities of Asia. The association between air pollution and human hea...

To meet electricity production and transportation, cooking, agricultural-field clearance for crop-rotation, we are consuming fossil fuels through combustion and burning the biomass. When these fuels are burnt, depending on fuel-type, combustion efficiency, and moisture content in the fuel, it releases a lot of aerosols (aka particulate matter), CO2...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected severely the economic structure and health care system, among others, of India and the rest of the world. The magnitude of its aftermath is exceptionally devastating in India, with the first case reported in January 2020, and the number has risen to ~31.3 million as of July 23, 2021. India imposed a complete lockd...

Unequivocal evidences suggest that aerosols have a potential impact on human health besides influencing atmospheric radiative forcing and climate. Aerosol concentrations vary drastically as a function of space and time. In order to capture and understand high-resolution variability record, the deployment of low-cost air monitors is the need of the...

In this study, we have coupled measurements, modelling, and remote sensing techniques to better delineate the source characteristics and variability of air pollutants in Delhi primarily during the post-monsoon season in 2019. We show a comparison of ambient PM2.5 (particulate matter having aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm) levels and associated element...

This study reports on the high-resolution data set of ground-level O3 , surface-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (SB-PAHs), and particle's number concentrations (range: 10 to 1,000 nm, referred to as condensation nucleus concentration: CNC) during a Diwali festival campaign (conducted from 08th to 16th Nov.2015) at Kanpur location. In this st...

Supplementary material

Supplementary material --Instrumental Variable Analysis in Atmospheric and Aerosol Chemistry

Due to the complex nature of ambient aerosols arising from the presence of myriads of organic compounds, the chemical reactivity of a particular compound with oxidant/s are studied through chamber experiments under controlled laboratory conditions. Several confounders (RH, T, light intensity, in chamber retention time) are controlled in chamber exp...

Light-absorbing organic aerosols, also known as brown carbon (BrC), enhance the warming effect of the Earth's atmosphere. The seasonal and spatial variability of BrC absorption properties is poorly constrained and accounted for in the climate models resulting in a substantial underestimation of their radiative forcing estimates. This study reports...

In this study, we have made attempts to present a brief review of commercially available different off-line particulate matter (PM) air samplers to highlight the need of user-centric design thinking approach for improving air sampler's collection/measurement accuracy, operation and handling. The limitations in the existing design of off-line PM sam...

Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes (BTEX) are among the most harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in our ambient environment in all the three media namely, air, water and soil. They are included in the priority list by USEPA (the United States Environmental Protection Agency) as most hazardous substances. These are harmful to h...

This book deals with contaminated Water, Air, Soil media and their Health Effects on population and Remedial measures to improve this situation. This book presents a synthesis with recent findings on air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution and human health. Each chapter, as applicable, discusses on abundance of pollutants in different media...

Inertial impactors can segregate particles based on their inertia difference, although it is associated with an inherent problem of particle bounce-off, which yields errors in the particle collection. Previously we have developed a novel PM 2.5 impactor with an off-centric rotating nozzle which has less tendency of particle bounce-off. In this stud...

Foggy episode is a conspicuous feature under predominant north-westerly wind-system during wintertime over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). Multiple factors including emissions from ground level and secondary transformations in the atmosphere, shallower planetary boundary layer height and low temperature result into haze and fog formation, and thus,...

It has been widely realized that bioaerosols play a very important role in climate change through participation in the carbon cycle of the ecosystem and holding potential cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) as well as ice-nucleation (IN) activity. Also, they are responsible for causing many allergenic effects. Human exposure to bioaerosols through phys...

Recent measurements conducted over northern India reveal that high loading and complex composition of fine fraction aerosols (penetrable into deeper parts of the human respiratory system) are among the major factors responsible towards significant premature deaths (~ 1 million/annum) caused by the respiratory diseases. Furthermore, ambient air qual...

PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) and other pollutants such as CO, NOx , SO2 , O3 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are believed to impact significantly on air quality and human health. In India, one of the major hotspots of air pollution is Delhi, and therefore, its inhabitants are exposed through inhalation and phy...

Copious evidence suggests that rapid urbanization and widespread anthropogenic activities are the main factors resulting in high levels of ambient air pollutant over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) in India. Continuous monitoring of levels of air pollutants affecting air quality, human health and the ecosystem is essentially required on a day-to-day...

In mega-cities with mixed traffic, older technology vehicles are causing greater health risk compared to newer technology vehicles and use of biodiesel on a larger scale can potentially lead to greater health risk upon large-scale implementation, if it is predominantly used in older technology vehicles. Hence, the policy makers should take a seriou...

Biodiesel engines produce several intermediate species, which can potentially harm the human health. The concentration of these species and their health risk potential varies depending on engine technology, fuel, and engine operating condition. In this study, experiments were performed on a large number of engines having different configurations (e...

This study reports for the first-time the ambient concentrations of HULIS mass (HULIS-OM, Humic-like substances) and HULIS-C (carbon) in PM10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm) from the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP at Kanpur, wintertime). HULIS extraction followed by purification and isolation protocol with methanol: acetonitrile (1...

High particulate and organic matter concentration has been reported in Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) especially during postmonsoon and wintertime (Dey et al., 2012). During SW-monsoon, generally significantly low particle concentration in troposphere has been reported due to high convective mixing and wet deposition due to rainfall. But in 2015, south-...

A wide variety of natural as well as anthropogenic sources contribute to atmospheric aerosol loading (Putaud et al., 2010). An adverse impact on human health is caused due to high concentration of fine particles (Dockery et al., 1993). Major anthropogenic sources of aerosols include biomass burning, industrial emissions and fossil-fuel combustion....

The current study deals with the baseline study on bioaerosol concentrations measured at various sampling sites inside IIT Kanpur campus, and subsequently to identify and characterize them through morphological and phenotype studies. The bioaerosol sampling was carried out by employing an in-house designed and tested Bioaerosol Sampler (Chauhan and...

The relationship between increasing levels of air pollution and morbidity and mortality rates (due to respiratory diseases) is known for a quite long time (Dockery et al., 1993). Recent research on exposure assessment of particulate matter has revealed severe implications to human health due to inhalation (GBD, 2015; Rajput and Gupta, 2016; Rajput...

Global Burden of Disease (GBD) research program reveals that currently in India about 1 million people (including male and female) are losing their life every year due to malnutrition, unhygienic condition and respiratory diseases(GBD, 2015). In order to estimate particles deposition in human respiratory system we have conducted a 1 Y long study fr...

Anthropogenic aerosols are predominantly derived from biomass burning emission and secondary transformations in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) (Rajput et al., 2018; Sorathia et al., 2018). Some of the aerosol species have been known to cause radiative imbalance in the Earth’s atmosphere through scattering and absorption of solar radiation. The poten...

This study reports for the first-time the ambient concentrations of HULIS mass (HULIS-OM, Humic-like substances) and HULIS-C (carbon) in PM10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm) from the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP at Kanpur, wintertime). HULIS extraction followed by purification and isolation protocol with methanol: acetonitrile (1...

Particulate matter (PM) loading during Southwest (SW) monsoon is significantly less over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) due to frequent wash out by wet precipitation and high convective mixing [Temp: ~ 40 °C; wind speed: ~8 m/s]. However in year 2015, weak SW-monsoon due to El-Niño and positive phase of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has resulted...

Indo‐Gangetic plain (IGP) is heavily polluted especially during winter‐time due to its topography, meteorological conditions and elevated particulate (PM) emissions. Various studies have been conducted to understand the sources as well as different processes undergoing in the atmosphere over this region. For a better understanding of the contributi...

In this study, we have monitored 1-h (afternoon) ambient concentrations of size-segregated particles by means of 12 channels aerosol spectrometer (PALAS; welas® 2000) over 130 days in one year (2015/2016) from a highly polluted and populated region (Kanpur) in central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). Average mass concentrations of PM2.5 (fine) and PM10-2...

Ambient PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) samples have been collected in two winter campaigns: I during 2nd December 2008‒27th February 2009 (n = 24) and II during 3rd December 2010‒11th February 2011 (n = 15). The PM2.5 mass varied significantly from 35 to 220 and 80 to 244 μg m−3 during I and II campaigns, respectively...

Diwali is one of the main festivals in India when fire crackers bursting lead to short term increase in particulate matter (PM) concentration in atmosphere. In this study, real time observations of size segregated particles number and mass concentration have been made during Diwali campaign in November 2015 at Kanpur. Results show that particle con...

This study assesses daytime and nighttime atmospheric abundance and molecular distribution of dicar-boxylic acids (DCA: C 2-C 10) and biomass burning tracers (levoglucosan and biomass burning derived potassium: K + BB) in PM 10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm) from an urban location, Kanpur (in central Indo-Gangetic Plain: IGP...

Ambient PM 2.5 (n = 42) samples have been collected during a weak Southwest (SW) monsoon (July-September, 2015) from central part of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP; at Kanpur). Organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), water-soluble inorganic species (WSIS) and metals have been measured in this study. Air-mass b...

A comprehensive study was carried out from central part of Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP; at Kanpur) to understand abundance, temporal variability, processes (secondary formation and fog-processing) and source-apportionment of PM1-bound species (PM1: particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter ≤ 1.0 μm) during wintertime. A total of 50 PM1 samples were c...

Aerosol Chemical composition and Characteristics during weak SW-monsoon

This study reports health risk assessment of PM1-bound carcinogenic hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] from central part of Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) (PM1: particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤1µm). Cr(VI) concentration has been estimated utilizing spectrophotometer with a modified novel method. Average ratio of Cr(VI)/CrT was 0.39 ± 0.07 (CrT:...

Bioaerosols (particles of biological origin) can be produced from living or dead plants and animals. They can potentially serve as the cloud condensation and ice nuclei (CCN and IN). Their role in global carbon cycle further highlights importance of studying their variability to link up with climate relevance parameters. Focusing on tropical region...

This study assesses stable carbon isotopic composition (δ¹³C) of total carbon (TC) in ambient aerosols (PM2.5) during wintertime (December 2014) from Kanpur (26.30 °N, 80.14 °E) in northern India. Chemical constituents viz organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and water-soluble ions in PM2.5 have also been measured. Back trajectories of air ma...

Supplementary informations

Atmospheric PM1 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 1 μm) samples have been collected during foggy (n = 17) and non-foggy nights (n = 19) in wintertime at Kanpur in central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) to assess light absorption characteristics and direct radiative forcing of water-extractable brown carbon (BrC). We have observed a signifi...

Abstract Filter samples collected during winter of 2015–16 from two polluted urban locations (Allahabad and Kanpur) residing within Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) showed high levels of water-soluble organic aerosols (WSOA). Total organic aerosols (OA) in submicron fraction, measured at Kanpur in real time via Aerosol Mass Spectrometer also showed substa...

A study on brown Carbon over Indo-Gangetic Plain

Recent ground-based measurements reveal that model-based observations are underestimating absorption properties and direct radiative forcing (DRF) due to carbonaceous species by a factor of 2–3 over South and East Asia. Thus, to better constraint these parameters associated with carbonaceous species, seasonal variability records through ground-base...

This study (first attempt) characterizes HULIS (Humic Like Substances) in wintertime aerosols (n = 12 during day and nighttime each) from Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP, at Kanpur) by using various state-of-the art techniques such as UV-VIS, FTIR, 1H-NMR and XPS. Based on UV-Vis analysis the absorption coefficient at 365 nm (babs-365) of HULIS was found...

WSOC concentration and absorbance signal due to BrC at 365 nm in aqueous extracts have been used to calculate absorption properties viz. MAE, AAE and kabs-BrC-365. In this study, MAE of BrC varied from 1.1‒3.1 m2/ g, kabs-BrC-365 from 0.05‒0.15 and AAE from 2.0–4.0. Temporal variability of MAE, kabs-BrC-365 and AAE has been assessed. Furthermore, M...

We report herein field-based data set on bioaerosols and organic carbon (OC) from central part of Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) at Kanpur. Among viable bioaerosols, maximum concentration of Gram-positive bacteria (GPB), Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) and Fungi was found during wintertime (December‒January; Av: ~ 190 CFU/m 3), post-monsoon (November; ~ 25...

One year monitoring of ambient particulate matter number and mass concentrations (PNC and PMC) from central part of IGP at Kanpur has been carried out to address their inhalation impact issues on human health in Indian context. Large variability and elevated concentrations of PM during post-monsoon and wintertime (totaling to 5 months period) show...

The concentration of bioaerosols, thus measured, is widely represented in colony forming units (CFU/m3). Each specific agar mediums viz. Mannitol Salt (11.10 %; w/v), MacConkey (5.15 %; w/v) and Sabouroud Dextrose (6.50 %; w/v) were boiled for ~ 1 h with double distilled water in a sterilized pressure-cooker. The prepared stuffs were allowed to coo...

Fine-fraction ambient aerosols (PM 2.5 ; n= 32) have been studied during the Southwest monsoon (July‒ September, 2015) at Kanpur (central Indo-Gangetic Plain). Water-soluble ionic species (WSIS) have been measured to assess the undergoing processes. ∑WSIS varied from 4‒32 μg/m 3 in PM 2.5. NH 4 + and SO 4 2-were found to be predominant in PM 2.5 (1...

This study assesses stable carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C) of total carbon (TC) in ambient aerosols (PM2.5) during wintertime (December 2014) from Kanpur (26.30 °N, 80.14 °E) in northern India. Chemical constituents viz. organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and water-soluble ions in PM2.5 have also been measured. Back trajectories of air...