Journal: Environmental Contaminants Reviews (ECR)
Author: Etesin Usoro M., Benson Emediong A

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Doi:10.26480/ecr.02.2024.48.57

ABSTRACT

Dumping of wastes from industrial facilities and domestic sources indiscriminately have led to incessant and injurious pollution of environmental components with heavy metals and other pollutants. To a far greater extent heavy metal pollution of soils is eliciting global attention and public health concern. This study was undertaken to assess the levels of heavy metal pollution in soils from Utaewa dumpsite in Ikot Abasi, Niger Delta, Nigeria , which few years ago was the site for the dumping of industrial wastes from Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria Limited, Ikot Abasi , but now being used for farming. Five soil samples and three Manihot esculenta (cassava tubers) samples were taken from the dumpsite, for heavy metal analyses ( vanadium, copper, lead, cadmium, arsenic, zinc, iron, nickel , cobalt , aluminium, silver and selenium) , by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. The results indicated the levels of cadmium and silver were below ,detection limits. Other metals were below the maximum permissible limits in soils. All the values of the heavy metals were lower than the permissible limits in crops, except As (0.503 mg/kg) and Se (0.594 mg/kg) as ,regulated. The pollution load index (PLI) of heavy metals in the soils during the rainy and dry seasons were 0.047 and 0.048 respectively, and the difference in the pollution load index for the two seasons is not significant (p < 0.05). Transfer factors for all the metals were less than one, except vanadium which had a value of 144.8, during the rainy season and 48.28, during the dry season, indicating enhanced transfer of vanadium and other metals from soil to the Manihot esculenta in both seasons, raising human health concern.

KEYWORDS
Heavy metals, dumpsite, pollution, contamination factor, transfer factor, pollution load index