Abstract
To improve our understanding of the impact of desert dust on human health, there is need to constantly monitor and examined the dust related phenomena. Therefore, twenty 20 year’s (1998–2018) data of visibility for Ilorin Nigeria were used to estimate the concentrations of the Total Suspended Particles (TSP) and Particulate Matter PM10 as usually used to monitor air quality on international level. The results established the threshold for daily concentration of TSP (254) and PM10 (186) μgm−3 at the study sites. It also identified months (November-March) of the following year with the greatest number of days having low air quality (high concentration of TSP and PM10). These months are responsible for 47% of the annual air pollution and number of days above the US EPA-NAAQSTSP, US EPA-NAAQS PM10 as well as the 24-hour EU-LVAQ regulations, respectively. Furthermore, some considerable numbers of days were found to experienced hazardous atmospheric condition for the total number of days, Harmattan and summer respectively. The concentrations of PM10 (0-54 μgm−3) showed absence of good air quality throughout the period of study. Even though, there were significant number of days associated with moderate air quality most of which occurs during summer. Consequence of which can lead to increased respiratory symptoms and aggravation of lung diseases. It was also observed that, the concentrations of TSP and PM10 start of build up in the atmosphere by October, reaching peak in December and January before it decline by April and remain low with almost uniform values until September.
Highlights
In recent years, mineral dust aerosol has become one of the major topics in environmental studies (Balarabe et al, 2015)
During Harmattan (NovemberMarch), dry wind is one of the major atmospheric phenomena in West Africa ( Uduma and Jimoh, 2013) which is later replaced by Summer (April-October) that is characterized by the wet wind which comes along with rainfall and reduced the aerosol concentrations from the atmosphere (Balarabe et al, 2015, 2016 and 2019)
An increased in respiratory diseases and mortality of 7.77% and 4.92% had been reported by Chen et al (2004) during Mongolian dust outbreaks in Taipei, Taiwan where 10 μgm−3 increase in PM10 was associated with 1.12% increase in respiratory diseases and 0.72 increase in mortality
Summary
Mineral dust aerosol has become one of the major topics in environmental studies (Balarabe et al, 2015). Based on the available horizontal visibility data, this work aimed at estimating the Total Suspended Particles (TSP) and particulate matter (PM10) concentration at Ilorin Nigeria and to compare with air quality standards from various sources. This will helps to assess the environmental effects of air pollution in the study region. Serious risk of respiratory symptoms and aggravation of lung disease, such as asthma; respiratory effects likely in general population
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