Exposure to hazardous air pollutants along Oba Akran road, Lagos – Nigeria

We measured toxic air pollutants along Oba Akran road in Lagos to evaluate pedestrian exposure. PM10, CO, O3, NO2, SO2, CH4, noise, wind velocity and temperature were measured simultaneously with portable analyzers. Our results showed that pedestrian exposure to PM10 (with an average of 274.6 μg m−3 for all samples) and CO (with an average of 19.27 ppm for all samples) was relatively high. CO is a traffic-related pollutant, so the influence of the local traffic emissions on CO levels is strong. The high concentration of the PM10 measured at the three environments also suggests that the traffic is a major source of ultrafine particles. The overall average concentrations for the 72-day experimental period for SO2, NO2 and O3 are 101.2, 62.5 and 0.32 ppb respectively, all of which are below the US national ambient air quality standards. Strong traffic impacts can be observed from the concentrations of some of these pollutants measured in these three environments. Most clear is a reflection of diesel truck traffic activity rich in black carbon concentrations. The diurnal variation of O3 and NO2 also showed that NO2 was depleted by photochemically formed O3 during the day and replenished at night as O3 was destroyed. A multivariate statistical analysis (Principal Component Analysis, Factor Analysis) has been applied to a set of data in order to determine the contribution of different sources. It was found that the main principal components, extracted from the air pollution data, were related to gasoline combustion, oil combustion and ozone interactions.

► We found relatively high exposure levels of CO and PM10 along Oba Akran road.
► PM10 and CO along Oba Akran road were highly traffic-related with possibly severe health consequences.
► PCA applied on pollution data resulted in components attributed to the gasoline combustion, oil combustion and ozone interactions.
► NO2 was depleted by photochemically formed O3 during the day and replenished at night.