ADVANCES IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Buletinul AGIR, Supliment 1/2013 146 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON AIR POLLUTION IN SPECIFIC AREAS OF RAIL TRAFFIC PhD. Eng. Luisa Izabel DUNGAN, PhD student. Eng. Mircea Adrian DUNGAN, PhD. eng Ion VETRES, PhD. Habil. Eng. Ioana IONEL „Polytechnica“ University of Timişoara REZUMAT. Traficul feroviar este o altă sursă importantă de polare a aerului. Transportul de mărfuri şi de persoane pe calea ferată este considerat, în general, ca fiind modalitatea cea mai ecologică de transport. Lucrarea prezintă o sinteză a rezultatelor măsurătorilor efectuate pe teren, şi anume, distribuţia dimensională a particulelor (PM10), concentraţia de substanţe acidifiante (în principal SOx şi NOx) şi a substanţelor anti- ozon generate de traficul feroviar în anumite zone din regiunea Banat. Cu toate acestea, poluarea aerului, în special de la traficul feroviar, rămâne un pericol major. Cuvinte cheie: poluare, feroviar, particule în suspensie, influenţă, mediu. ABSTRACT. The rail traffic is another important source of air pollution. Transport of goods and people with railways is generally considered as the most environmentally friendly means of transportation. Paper presents a summary of field test results on the concentration and size distribution of particulate matter(PM10), concentration of acidifying substances (mainly SOx and NOx) and ozone depletion substances generated by the railway traffic in specific areas- Banat region. Nevertheless, air pollution, in particular from rail traffic, remains a major hazard. Keywords: pollution, railway, particulate matter, influence, environment. 1. INTRODUCTION Transport presents real challenges as society tries to ensure a more environmentally sustainable future [1]. As per Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, environment includes all the physical and biological surroundings of an organism along with their inter- actions. According [2], environment is thus defined as “the sum total of water, air and land and the inter- relationships that exist among them and with the human beings, other living organisms and materials”. This is schematically presented in Figure 1[2]. Fig. 1. Concept of Environment: air, water, land, living organisms and materials surrounding us and their interactions together constitute environment [2]. In fact, transport sector can be considered as an important source of particulate matter and/or acidi- fying substances into the environment. Until now, numerous studies focus on road traffic pollution, but just a little is known about rail traffic. However, regular railway operation is also associated with the diffuse release of inorganic and organic substances in the environment (Fig. 2 [3]). Fig. 2. Spatial distribution of substances emitted by regular railway operation and their influence to environment[3] “Transport of goods and people with railways is generally considered as the most environmentally friendly means of transportation. The remaining en- vironmental concerns usually focus on the emission of air pollutants and noise. The main emission source is considered to be exhaust emissions from diesel engines, mainly of NO x , particulate matter and