Udochukwu U.^1,, Inetianbor J.², Omorotionmwan F.O.³, Okpuruka N.S.¹

Indoor air is an essential environment for healthy living and it can become a dominant source of contaminants when it is incorporated with complex mixture of biological and non-biological particles as a result of human activities. The effect of high customer patronage on the indoor air quality of restaurants in Lokoja metropolis and its public health impacts was investigated. Twelve restaurants were sampled; seven from Lokoja-Abuja highway and five from IBB way using standard microbiological assays and biochemical test such as citrate utilization test, urease test, catalase test, indole test, oxidase test and coagulase test. Bacteria isolated from the sampled restaurants were Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli and Micrococcus luteus. The airborne fungal isolates were Aspergillus niger, Aspergilus flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum, Rhizopus stolinifer, Fusarium oxysporum and Clasdosporium fulvum. Restaurant B on the Lokoja-Abuja high way has the highest bacterial count of 400cfu per minute of exposure while restaurant Y on the IBB way has the lowest bacterial count of 25cfu per minute of exposure. Restaurant B has the highest fungal count of 6.0 cfu per minute of exposure while restaurant Z has the lowest count of 1.5 cfu per minute exposure. Escherichia coli was the mostly distributed bacteria while Streptococcus pyogenes was the least distributed. Rhizopus stolinifer was the highest fungal distributed and Clasdosporium fulvum the least. Human activities contribute to the indoor air quality of these restaurants and this could pose a danger to customers especially the immunocompromised customers which will have a concomitant effect on the patronage of the restaurants. Proper sanitation, personal hygiene and good ventilation system is recommended to avoid contamination of food and spread of diseases.

high customer patronage, indoor air quality, restaurants, public health, microbial counts