Assessment of the environmental impact of acid rains on the human health and the environment in Baghdad city

Abstract EN

In this study, the acidity of rainwater and concentration of the carbon dioxide (CO2) in Baghdad city were measured and calculated.

The applicability of the Henry's law of the solubility of gases in water is tested.

The measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the outdoor air space are carried out in Baghdad city by using indoor air quality meter IAQ-CALC (TSI, USA).

The acidity of the collected rainwater samples is measured using portable pH/EC/TDS meter.

The concentration of the hydrogen ions from ionization of the carbonic acid are determined by using chemical equilibrium equations.

The t-distribution test of the collected data indicates that there is no significant difference between the actual rainwater acidity and the equilibrium values calculated by Henry's law.

The findings of this study suggest that there are no harmful effects related to acid precipitation in Baghdad city since the natural rainfalls have pH values between 5.8 and 6.6, which are significantly higher than the pH value of acid rainfall (less than 5.6).