Universal Journal of Public Health Vol. 9(4), pp. 194 - 200
DOI: 10.13189/ujph.2021.090405
Reprint (PDF) (273Kb)

Comparison of Air Pollutants' Hazardous Levels in Selected Cities of Malaysia: Entropy Method

Nur Syamimi Muhamad Fauzi ^1,*, Maznah Mat Kasim ¹, Nor Hasliza Mat Desa ^2
1 Department of Decision Science, School of Quantitative Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
² Department of Statistics, School of Quantitative Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The ambient of air quality in Malaysia is described in terms of Air Pollutant Index (API) which is calculated based on the maximum value of sub-index values of each of the six air pollutants (Sulphur Dioxide (SO₂), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Ozone (O₃), particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometres (PM₁₀) and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 micrometres (PM_2.5). It is argued that the existing API cannot give the true picture of how harmful the pollution is towards humans' health because the hazardous levels of these pollutants are not considered in the API development. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the weights of the air pollutants according to their levels of hazardous in three selected cities in Malaysia; Putrajaya (PJ), Tawau (TW) and Alor Setar (AS). The study applies Shannon entropy method to weigh the air pollutants where the entropy values of the pollutants are the proxy measure of the pollutants' weights. The pollutants with higher weights would contribute more to air pollution and vice-versa. The study found different weights of the pollutants according to different cities where PJ shows SO₂ at the top ranking with 48.16% of the air pollutants' weight. Meanwhile, TW and AS show PM_2.5 at the first rank with 36.31% and 31.79% respectively. However, the analysis on the overall data shows that PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ are at the most and second most hazardous pollutants respectively that contribute to the air pollution. The effect of these two particulate matters is said to be more serious since SO₂ that is associated with both particulate matters are difficult to breakdown and bring harmful effects in human life as compared to the other air pollutants. This study signifies a new perspective in measuring the hazardous levels of the air pollutants and the results could be used to improve the existing API in monitoring the air quality in Malaysia.

KEYWORDS
Air Pollutants, Level of Hazardous, Weightage, Objective Weight, Entropy Method

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Nur Syamimi Muhamad Fauzi , Maznah Mat Kasim , Nor Hasliza Mat Desa , "Comparison of Air Pollutants' Hazardous Levels in Selected Cities of Malaysia: Entropy Method," Universal Journal of Public Health, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 194 - 200, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/ujph.2021.090405.

(b). APA Format:
Nur Syamimi Muhamad Fauzi , Maznah Mat Kasim , Nor Hasliza Mat Desa (2021). Comparison of Air Pollutants' Hazardous Levels in Selected Cities of Malaysia: Entropy Method. Universal Journal of Public Health, 9(4), 194 - 200. DOI: 10.13189/ujph.2021.090405.