Atmospheric Concentration of Particulate Pollutants and its Implications for Respiratory Health Hazard Management in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Human impacts on the atmosphere have been notorious for their large emissions of trace gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere. Recently, there is growing awareness in Nigeria of the adverse effects of air pollution on health and environment especially that of Suspended particulate matter. This paper examined the spatial and seasonal concentrations of particulate pollutants and its health implications for the Port Harcourt city residence. Using standard equipments data on weekly concentration of particulates were obtained for the wet, transition and dry seasons. Findings showed that the percentage seasonal weekly contribution of PM₁₀ by the respective landuse indicate that  the industrial areas had the peak value of 65.14%, 29.51% and 16.92% during the dry, wet and transition period respectively. The transport areas accounted for 12.43%, 14.91% and 7.34% during the transition, dry and wet seasons respectively. For the High Density Residential areas, the dry, transition and wet seasons accounted for 14.04%, 12.67% and 7.34% respectively. Finding further showed that the risk of respiratory related diseases is expected to be higher among high density residential areas of Woji, Nkpogu, Nchia, Aleto, Akpojo, Alesa, Ogonigba, Okrika main land, and Elelenwo sandwiched between the Trans-Amadi and Eleme industrial areas that are located down-wind of the city. Member of the public who are vulnerable to these diseases should stay clear from these areas. It advocates regular monitoring of particulates in order to reduce the disease burden.

Keywords: Particulates pollutants, Respiratory diseases, Landuse, Seasonal, Port Harcourt.