Abstract
ABSTRACT Particulate pollution in West African cities seriously impacts public human health. Assessing the levels of pollution to which populations are exposed is problematic, as to date very few countries in Africa have an air quality monitoring network in place. However, given the specific anthropogenic sources present in West African countries and the increase in their projected emissions in the coming years if no regulations are put in place, solutions must be found. This study evaluates with a simple existing methodology particulate air pollution in two West African cities (Korhogo and Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire) which have different population practices and local meteorology. From two measurement campaigns at about ten sites during the dry season and using the inverse distance-weighted interpolation method, maps of spatial variation in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are obtained at the scale of each of these cities, which provide a snapshot of the concentration levels to which populations are actually exposed. The results of this study showed that populations in low- and middle-income areas are exposed to higher concentrations than those in high-income areas. The analysis of the relative contribution of fine particles to coarse particles shows that PM2.5 contributes to PM10 at less than 40% in Korhogo but more than 50% in Abidjan. Daily average concentrations of PM2.5 are all above WHO standards, and are 2 to 8 times higher in Korhogo, while in Abidjan they are up to 4 times higher. The daily profiles of the mean hourly concentrations of the sites are similar across all sites in Korhogo, while in Abidjan, that of some sites show some differences. This study, by the methodology used, offers an opportunity for different research teams to assess at lower cost the population's exposure levels to urban particulate pollution.
Highlights
Air pollution is a global public health problem and its extent in the cities of many developing countries is still poorly known (Kirenga et al, 2015)
This study provides an assessment of air quality in the cities of Korhogo and Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire by proposing for the first time to our knowledge, spatial variation maps of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations
The use of low-cost sensors at 14 sites in Korhogo and 20 in Abidjan resulted in daily average PM10 concentrations ranging from 212.2 μg m–3 to 534.7 μg m–3 in Korhogo and from 38.1 μg m–3 to 160.4 μg m–3 in Abidjan
Summary
Air pollution is a global public health problem and its extent in the cities of many developing countries is still poorly known (Kirenga et al, 2015). Anthropogenic sources are harmful in developing countries because of the absence or Aerosol and Air Quality Research | https://aaqr.org ineffectiveness of regulations on pollutant emissions. Open burning of waste in urban areas of Africa is a very common phenomenon due to the ineffectiveness of municipal waste collection and management policies (Keita et al, 2020). In addition to these local sources, there are important imported sources of aerosols: (1) desert dust and natural savannah fire sources from prevailing Harmattan wind (north wind) as well as (2) marine aerosols brought by monsoon flow (southwest wind)
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