Particulate matter and heavy metal content in air in the city of Nairobi
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Date
1991Author
Murakaru., Johnson K
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
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Nairobi City has a population of over 1.5 million and is
growing at a rate of about 70 persons per day. Various
activities in the City such as construction work, industrial
processes, use of unroadworthy cars, and dust blown off
unpaved roads do contribute enormously to suspended
particulate matter in the air. In this work, .!he analysis by
gravimetric and Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF)
of the suspended particulate matter in the air in the city
centre, Industrial Area and one residential area was done. The
values of lead obtained (0.395-1.321 llg/m3) falls within the WHO
recommendations, but compared to the values reported in some
European countries, they are high. Most of the elements had low
enrichment factors, EF, except for lead (EF 104-353), bromine
\(EF 429-1533) and zinc (EF 14-79). The bromine and lead were
highly correlated to the number of light vehicles (r=0.874 and
0.942 respectively). In addition the ratio by weight of Br:Pb
ranged 0.309-0.535 while the correlation factor for Br to Pb was
0.951 leading to the conclusion that both elements came from the
leaded gasoline.