Introduction

Although air pollution is commonly associated with metropolitan areas, the problem is not uncommon in industrial locations of the peri-urban and rural areas. With industrial expansion, increased employment opportunities motivate people to settle down close to factories. Even though some such jobs are risky and hazardous, poverty driven households have no option other than to accept them.

The cement industry in Puttalam, Sri Lanka, could be described as one such industry. It is an expanding localized industrial operation concentrated basically in areas with easy access to the basic raw materials, i.e., limestone and clay. These raw materials are found in abundance in the Northwestern coastal belt from Palavi in the Puttalam district up to Murugan in the Jaffna district. The demand for cement is increasing with rapid developments in the services and construction sector, and about 35 per cent of the demand is met with domestic production. The Puttalam cement factory, which is the biggest of the two functioning factories, produces 80 per cent of the local production of 542,000 MT (Economic and Social Statistics, 1998). However, the processes of cement production, which comprise mining, pulverizing, grinding and clinkering, generate air dust particulates, fumes, and gases consisting of Nitrous oxide (NO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and Carbon monoxide CO. These emissions degrade the air quality of the local area, spreading to around a 3–4 km radius periphery of the factory.