Volatile Organic Compound Composition of Urban Air in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria

Rebecca Cordell; Rikesh Panchal; Emmanuel Bernard; Michael Gatari; Ezekiel Waiguru; Moses Ng'ang'a; James Nyang'aya; Madara Ogot; Michael Wilde; Kevin Wyche; Akeem Abayomi; Rose Alani; Paul Monks; Joshua Vande Hey

doi:10.3390/atmos12101329

Volatile Organic Compound Composition of Urban Air in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria

Rebecca Cordell, Rikesh Panchal, Emmanuel Bernard, Michael Gatari, Ezekiel Waiguru, Moses Ng'ang'a, James Nyang'aya, Madara Ogot, Michael Wilde, Kevin Wyche, Akeem Abayomi, Rose Alani, Paul Monks, Joshua Vande Hey

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa is seeing rapid urbanization, with the population of cities such as Lagos and Nairobi growing at a rate of 3–4% a year. The region is extremely under sampled for all air pollutants, particularly VOCs, which are useful markers for source apportionment as well as toxic in their own right. There are many contributors to air pollution in the region, and studies examining fine particulate pollution implicate traffic as the primary source in urban areas. In this pilot study, VOCs were analysed at a selection of roadside and urban background locations in Nairobi and Lagos, and 74 VOCs were quantified. GC×GC–MS/FID analysis revealed all locations were dominated by hydrocarbons typical of vehicle emissions, with the aromatic hydrocarbons benzene and toluene among the most abundant VOCs. Typical personal exposure scenarios for citizens of the cities were calculated to far exceed those of a resident in a city in Europe/US. Finally, the calculated ozone forming potential of the VOCs measured was
found to be similarly high to other large cities studied with similar air pollution problems. Further study is therefore essential to determine the full extent of VOC pollution in the region and its impact on tropospheric chemistry.

Original language	English
Article number	1329
Number of pages	28
Journal	Atmosphere
Volume	12
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101329
Publication status	Published - 12 Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Funding Information:
acknowledges funding from the NIHR HPRU in Environmental Exposures and Health at the Uni‐ versity of Leicester.

Funding Information:
Funding: This work was supported by the University of Leicester’s QR Global Challenges Research Fund (Research England), the British Council Newton Utafiti Award 275904011, and the NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship of J. D. Vande Hey NE/N005406/1. Additionally, J. D. Vande Hey

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the University of Leicester?s QR Global Challenges Research Fund (Research England), the British Council Newton Utafiti Award 275904011, and the NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship of J. D. Vande Hey NE/N005406/1. Additionally, J. D. Vande Hey acknowledges funding from the NIHR HPRU in Environmental Exposures and Health at the University of Leicester.

Keywords

volatile organic compound
Sub-Saharan Africa
ambient air pollution
air quality
air pollution
Volatile organic compounds
Sub‐Saharan Africa
Ambient air pollution

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Cordell et al Atmosphere 2021Final published version, 1.16 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Volatile Organic Compound Composition of Urban Air in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria",

abstract = "Sub-Saharan Africa is seeing rapid urbanization, with the population of cities such as Lagos and Nairobi growing at a rate of 3–4% a year. The region is extremely under sampled for all air pollutants, particularly VOCs, which are useful markers for source apportionment as well as toxic in their own right. There are many contributors to air pollution in the region, and studies examining fine particulate pollution implicate traffic as the primary source in urban areas. In this pilot study, VOCs were analysed at a selection of roadside and urban background locations in Nairobi and Lagos, and 74 VOCs were quantified. GC×GC–MS/FID analysis revealed all locations were dominated by hydrocarbons typical of vehicle emissions, with the aromatic hydrocarbons benzene and toluene among the most abundant VOCs. Typical personal exposure scenarios for citizens of the cities were calculated to far exceed those of a resident in a city in Europe/US. Finally, the calculated ozone forming potential of the VOCs measured was found to be similarly high to other large cities studied with similar air pollution problems. Further study is therefore essential to determine the full extent of VOC pollution in the region and its impact on tropospheric chemistry.",

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Volatile Organic Compound Composition of Urban Air in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

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Keywords

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