Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Preliminary investigation of air quality parameters in Calabar was undertaken by the Atmospheric Research Team at the Department of Physics, University of Calabar under the sponsorship of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund in Nigeria. The investigation was initially designed to determine air quality indices in three major cities of the oil producing Niger Delta region of Nigeria where gas flaring and other environmental abuse have gone unabated for over four decades. However, due to paucity of funds, the study was limited to Calabar and its environs. This paper is a report of preliminary findings of a comprehensive data collection and analysis of criteria gases and particulate matter in Calabar. Both mobile and stationary equipment were used in the data collection process. The stationary facility consist of AQM65 which was mounted at the geo-environmental field station at the University of Calabar. The station lies at the heart of the city. The automated facility was programmed to record data at a minimum of a minute interval for a period of one year. Records of pollutants such as SO2, CO2, CO, CH4, H2S, NOx, O3, PID, TSP were also uploaded into the cloud automatically. The mobile equipment consist of AEROQUAL series 500 gas analyzer, Aerocet 531S particle mass sampler, Extech 4-1 Environmental meter which were used to measure the concentration of most pollutants and micro climate data for the 50 locations selected for the study. Data is expected to be used to develop air quality indices and air quality map for the area. Preliminary results show six months averages of criteria pollutants indicating that SO2 has 0.003999ppm, CO2 has 0.60606ppm, H2S has 0.000845ppm, NOx has 0.006034 and O3 has -00223ppm. For particulate matter PM10 has 242.3098ug/m3 while PM2.5 has 59.839ug/m3. In general, these values are below both international and national standards on air quality further confirming Calabar as the cleanest city in Nigeria.