Ambient Gaseous Pollutants in an Urban Area in South Africa: Levels and Potential Human Health Risk

Abstract

Urban air pollution from gaseous pollutants is a growing public health problem in many countries including South Africa. Examining the levels, trends and health risk of exposure to ambient gaseous pollutants will assist in understanding the effectiveness of existing control measures and plan for suitable management strategies. This study determined the concentration levels and non-cancer risk of CO, SO2, NO2, and O3 at an industrial area in Pretoria West, South Africa. We utilised a set of secondary data for CO, NO2, SO2, and O3 that was obtained from a monitoring station. Analysis of the hourly monitored data was done. Their non-cancer risk (HQ) was determined using the human health risk assessment model for different age categories. The annual levels of NO2 (39.442 µg/m3), SO2 (22.464 µg/m3), CO (722.003 µg/m3) and the 8-hour concentration of CO (649.902 µg/m3) and O3 (33.556 µg/m3) did not exceed the South African National Ambient Air Quality Standards for each pollutant. The HQ for each pollutant across exposed groups (except children) was less than 1. This indicates that the recorded levels could not pose non-cancer risk to susceptible individuals.

Keywords

• gaseous pollutants
• air quality
• health risk assessment
• South Africa