Assessment of an atmospheric heavy metal from a transport pool within the Ilorin Metropolis, Nigeria
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Date
2021-08-30
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ministry of Science, Research & Technology Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology
Abstract
Particulate emission from a high density of vehicles has become a subject of interest
and great concern for the assessment of local air quality within the Ilorin metropolis,
Nigeria. This study aims to determine possible heavy metal pollution from vehicular
emission along the major transport pool within the Ilorin metropolis. Deposition
gauges were placed on a pole above human breathing height at 1.5 m at selected major
roundabouts within the Ilorin metropolis. Gauges were planted for one month (April
27th to May 30th, 2020) during the Covid-19 lockdown and one month (January 15th
to February 14th, 2021) after the Covid-19 lockdown. The collected samples were
rinsed with deionized water, filtered, and dried in a desiccator. The dried samples were
characterized using Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF). Twenty-one heavy
metals were detected from all sampling locations. The total sum concentrations of the
heavy metals recorded during and after the Covid-19 lockdown were 1018.58785 and
1359.15479 mg.m-3, respectively. The averaged measured concentration of most of the
heavy metals sampled along selected major roundabouts within the Ilorin metropolis
during and after Covid-19 lockdown exceeded the permissible emission limit. The
Deposition Flux (DF) of the measured heavy metals ranged from 4.53 to 8.91 g.m-2.
month-1 during the lockdown and from 6.23 to 29.55 g.m-2.month-1 after the lockdown.
The enrichment factor and concentration ratio were also determined. The results of both
indicated that heavy metal pollutions originated from multiple similar anthropogenic
sources, and photochemical degradation was active in all the sampling locations. This
study suggested the need to shift from a fossil fuel economy to a hydrogen economy to
mitigate heavy metal pollutions from vehicular emissions to the barest minimum
Description
Vehicular emissions have become an increasing and
dominant source of air pollution in cities throughout
the world, especially in developing countries. The
increasing use of vehicles has left many streets in
developing countries with high levels of congestion and
an indiscriminate release of vehicular exhaust emissions
polluting the air and exposing the population to severe
health risks [1-3]
Keywords
Citation
Muhibbudin, E. I., Ebube, O. V., Asuquo, B. D., Adepoju, M., Mubarak, S., Adebanjo, S., & Ayodele, I. (2021): Assessment of an atmospheric heavy metal from a transport pool within the Ilorin Metropolis, Nigeria. Journal of Particle Science & Technology. 7 (1); 11-21