Original Research Article
Year: 2021 | Month: May | Volume: 11 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 255-260
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20210541
The Impacts of Dry & Wet Seasons Induced Criteria Air Pollutants Concentrations in Old Port Harcourt Gra, Rivers State, Nigeria
Levi-Okoli Ifeyinwa Chikerenma1; Briggs-Kamara Apaemi2; Sigalo Friday Barikpe3; Iyeneomie Tamunoobereton-Ari4
1,2,3,4Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Corresponding Author: Levi-Okoli Ifeyinwa Chikerenma
ABSTRACT
This paper evaluated the air quality in Old Port Harcourt GRA in order to determine if it is within or above the acceptable limits/standards by the WHO. To measure the ambient air quality in the study area, a portable gaseous emission analyzer was used. Gaseous pollutants were monitored continuously by pulsed fluorescence. In this method, air is drawn via a sample chamber where it is irradiated with pulses of ultra-violet light. Any specified gas of interest in the sample is excited to a higher energy level and upon returning to its original state, light or fluorescence is released. The amount of fluorescence measured is proportional to the gas concentration. The Suspended particulate matter was measured with an EGVOC SPM Monitor. This is a hand held Aerosol particle counters that operates by counting and sizing the number of particles in the air. In the data analysis, all the average measurements were done in uniform unit of µg/m3. From the findings, in Old Port Harcourt GRA, the ozone (O3) for both dry and wet seasons, and wet season PM10 were within the WHO standards. Sox for both wet and dry seasons were above the WHO limit by 80%; NOx for both wet and dry seasons were above WHO limits by 60%. However, the mean concentration of PM2.5 in dry season was above the WHO limits by 88.2%, while in wet season, the average concentration of PM2.5 was higher than the WHO limits by just 11.5%. The average concentration of PM10 in dry season was higher than the WHO limits by 79.5%. The implications of the findings are that the levels/concentrations of the ozone (O3) both in the dry and wet seasons and the PM10 level in wet season are safe enough for the people of old Port Harcourt GRA as they are within the WHO standards for criteria air pollutants. The level of PM2.5 in wet season is relatively safe but more works still need to be done to further reduce it to be within WHO acceptable limits. The levels/concentrations of the other criteria air pollutants are very unsafe for the people of old Port Harcourt GRA.
Key words: Criteria air pollutants, Wet season, Dry Season, Port Harcourt, WHO guidelines.