AIR QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND PARTICULATE MATTER LEVELS IN SELECTED LOCATIONS OF JOS-SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Air quality is a critical aspect of environmental health, as it directly impacts human well-being and the ecosystem. Monitoring and assessments of air quality levels, particularly the particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), are therefore absolutely essential. In this study, the levels of PM2.5 and PM10 were analyzed in some selected areas of Jos-South area using a portable CW-HAT 200 Dust Particles Counter. The finding of the study revealed that 70 % of PM2.5 and 100 % of PM10 in all the sampling sites exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO)’s threshold limit, with the highest level of PM2.5 of 1.014 mg/m³ recorded at Old Airport Roundabout YG Way and the lowest level of 0.007 mg/m³ was observed at D.B. Zang Roundabout in comparison with the control. For PM10, the highest concentration of 0.039 mg/m³ was recorded at Old Airport Roundabout YG Way, while the lowest concentration of 0.012 mg/m³ was observed at Old Airport Roundabout Anguldi when compared with the control. There was a temporal variation in PM levels during the morning and afternoon, but the variations were not significant as confirmed by the independent t-test results (p = 0.05). Air Quality Index (AQI) analysis results indicated that the PM contributes to high pollution levels and significant human health concerns, particularly the PM2.5, which require urgent remediation strategies to safeguard public health and the environment.