Appraisal of Sulphur Contaminants from Transportation in Urban Zaria, Nigeria

Y. A. Aliyu; I. J Musa; T. T. Youngu

Authors

Y. A. Aliyu Department of Geomatics, Faculty of Environmental Design, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria
I. J Musa Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria
T. T. Youngu Department of Geomatics, Faculty of Environmental Design, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria

Abstract

As a step towards remediation of sulphur contaminants, this study used a Crowcon Gasman (gas detection instrument) to collect and analyze Sulphuric gas samples from densely populated areas of urban Zaria. The results showed varying concentrations of Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) and Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S). The high concentrations of these pollutants detected can be attributed to increased population growth, increased production of gaseous wastes and increased number of vehicular movement. The results indicate also that the concentrations of pollutant sulphur component SO2 measured at all sampling points, with exception of the control site were hazardous while that of H2S were within safe limit set by FEPA and ACGIH respectively. Statistical tests were performed which established significant variation/relationship between detected pollutants and traffic volume. Findings from this study imply that vehicular emission within urban Zaria is not within the safe limit which further reveals that transport-related pollution in Zaria urban area can be potentially hazardous to health.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n10p155