Estimation of Heavy Metals Content at Traffic Inter-Change Ita-Marun Epe Lagos State Nigeria

Abstract

This study assesses the vehicular and traffic emission at Ita-marun Epe Lagos State. Road traffic area contains contaminants which affects human, animals and plants. Hence, the need to investigate the concentrations of these contaminants within the selected area. Three deposition gauges of 0.15 by 0.20 mm were planted at selected sampling site for 30 days between December 2021 and January 2022. The Lagos State University Epe campus was used as the control experiment for this research work. Deposition flux for each site was determined. The contaminants levels of the heavy metals in particulate matter were evaluated using the Enrichment Factor (EF) analysis. Deposition fluxes determined range from 31.8269-39.7836 g/m2/month at the sampling site while it ranges 42.3934-51.0567 g/m2/month at control site. Elemental analyses of all the samples collected were determined using the Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF). EF reveals that 7 elements Ag, Cd, Cr, In, Mn, Sn, and Zn are highly enriched at sampling site while 6 elements S, Cl, Zn, Ge, As and W at the control site respectively. Results shows that fluxes at the control site were higher than that of the sampling site. EF also reveals that seven elements at the sampling site and six elements at the control site were anthropogenically derived. Due to the findings of this research, a clean-up of this area is highly recommended.