It has already been proven that aside from keeping pollutants away from storm drains and surface water, street sweeping helps in maintaining good air quality in urban areas. In the Greater Toronto Area, particularly in the town of Hamilton in Ontario, a study was made in 1999 regarding air quality and the effect of street sweeping on removing pollutants and small particles from the road that may lead to air pollution.
Hamilton is an industrial town in Ontario in the Greater Toronto Area. Because of the land use in the area, it is common for the roads to have dust, agricultural dusts and other types of roads and dust from construction and other types of industries in the area. The dirt and dust on the roads also come from emissions from industries, vehicle emissions and other sources. These dusts are called fugitive dusts.
Toxic particles can attach themselves to these dusts. Toxic materials such as manganese and chromium may be found in these fugitive dusts. When the streets are not cleaned, these dusts may become airborne and cause health problems for people. When it rains, these toxic dusts can then get washed into the storm drains and flow into natural bodies of water.
The study on the impact of street sweeping on the air quality of Hamilton revealed that with the use of combined road sweeping technologies on the roads of Hamilton, particles with the size of less than ten microns were greatly reduced from the air in these areas. The roads used for the tests were Barton, Wentworth, Barton, Ottawa and Sherman. Today, companies that operate in Hamilton and in the other towns in the GTA use different methods of cleaning the roads- Street sweeping, vacuuming and road flushing.
Companies in Hamilton were given a workshop in 2006 to raise awareness on fugitive dusts and they're impacts to health and environment. The workshop was conducted in cooperation with the Hamilton Port Authority, the local city government, the Ministry of the Environment, and Clean Air Hamilton.
Controlling and managing fugitive tasks should be the responsibility of the industrial sites. Some industries in Hamilton handle more particulates than others. There are also industries that cause more emissions than others that lead to dusts and dirt being released into the air and onto the roads. Aside from street sweeping and cleaning, industries in Hamilton should also implement industry best practices to reduce the release of dusts with particulates into the air.
Street sweeping greatly reduces dusts that become airborne on the roads of Hamilton and other places in Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area. Street sweeping equipments are designed to pick small particles on the road even near the curb. While in the early years of street sweeping, a street that has been swept is already deemed clean, these days the technologies used in street sweeping continue to be improved to become more efficient in picking up smaller and smaller dirt. The machines have also been improved to lessen emissions. Aside from the regular mechanical brooms used, the more effective methods involve the vacuum machines. The vacuum machines combined with the method of using machines to flush the roads, greatly reduces fugitive dusts.
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