Abstract
Human health challenges resulting from consumption of food contaminated by heavy metals necessitated the investigation of soil and cassava plants around automobile waste dumpsite at Ohiya mechanic village, Abia State, Nigeria. Soil and cassava samples collected randomly at the site were analyzed for cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and chromium (Cr). The values of highest concentration of Cu and Pb in soil was recorded in 0-10 cm, Cr was obtained in 21-30 cm while Cd was in 11-20 cm soil depth. The concentration of Cd (0.11±0.00 to 0.26±0.00 mg/kg) in soil exceed maximum permitted level of 0.1 mg/kg (Cd) by FAO/WHO. The concentration of Pb (0.01±0.001 to 3.24±0.00 mg/kg) and Cd (0.07±0.00 to 2.08±0.00 mg/kg) in cassava plants exceed the permissible limit of 0.3 mg/kg (Pb) and 0.2 mg/kg (Cd) set by FAO/WHO. The Pearson correlation analysis show very strong positive relationship between Cu and Cu (r=0.996) and Pb and Pb (r=0.986) while strong negative relationship exist between Cr and Cr (r= -0.686) and Cd and Cd (r= -0.981) in soil and plant. Based on our findings, the concentrations of Cd in soil vis-à-vis Pb and Cd in plants which exceed maximum permitted level set by Codex Alimentarius Commission FAO/WHO will expose man and animals that relied on soil and cassava plants for food to serious health risks. Consequently, Abia State government should prevent farmers’ access to the site by fencing round the automobile waste dumpsite.
Highlights
The environment is continuously being contaminated by various human activities such as industrial production, agricultural processes, mineral exploitation, food processing, commercial, social, and domestic activities that generate contaminants like heavy metals (Ogbonna et al, 2018a)
The results indicate that the highest and lowest heavy metal concentrations in soil were obtained at the scrap metal dumpsite and control site, respectively for Cd, Pb, Cu and Cr
Since there were no other sources of contamination in the area, the high concentrations of heavy metals in soil of the automobile waste dumpsite may be attributed to leaching of the heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cu and Cr) from the large volume of waste from Ohiya mechanic village waste dumpsite
Summary
The environment is continuously being contaminated by various human activities such as industrial production, agricultural processes, mineral exploitation, food processing, commercial, social, and domestic activities that generate contaminants like heavy metals (Ogbonna et al, 2018a). Continual loading of pollutants into the environment is of great concern to man since contaminants such as heavy metals persist in the environment due to its chemical structure (Ali et al, 2013; Hashem et al, 2017). Such contaminants include lead, cadmium, mercury and dioxin that never go away or degrade for long time. Human health challenges in recent times have been attributed to consumption of food contaminated with heavy metals.
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