Abstract
This research monitored the level of some heavy metals in soil and a plant species around iron smelting industry. The soil in different depths D1 (0 -10 cm), D2 (10 – 20 cm) and D3 (20 -30 cm) and plant (Tithonia diversifolia) known as Mexican sunflower were sampled in four soil sampling points (SSP) and plant sampling points (PSP) which are 50, 100, 150 and 200 m away from the industry. The concentrations of Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn in the soil and plant digest were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). Some physicochemical properties like pH, electrical conductivity and organic matter were also measured. The result of the analysis of the heavy metals in the soil was in the sequence Fe > Zn > Cu >Pb> Cr at SSP1 SSP2 and SSP4 while Fe > Zn > Cu > Cr > Pb at SSP3. In the plant, the result showed the presence of these heavy metals except Pb which was not present in any sampling points. The concentration of iron (Fe) in the plant decreased away from PSP1 to PSP4 around the industry. The physicochemical properties like pH which influenced the availability of metals in soil were found to increase away from SSP1 to SSP4 and consequently its effect on the concentration of these heavy metals in plants, particularly for Fe and Zn. Although, heavy metals monitored were within the permissible limit of WHO except Fe in soil, the trend of their presence in
Highlights
The environmental impact of industrialization has been a major concern of environmentalists. Karataş (2016) posited that environmental problems in recent times mostly arise from human activities
Soil Physicochemical properties The physicochemical properties and heavy metals analysis of the soil samples around the iron smelting industry is presented in Tables 1a and b
The least mean concentrations of these heavy metals in soil were obtained in the farthest sampling point (SSP4) except for Zn which was in SSP2
Summary
The environmental impact of industrialization has been a major concern of environmentalists. Karataş (2016) posited that environmental problems in recent times mostly arise from human activities. There is no doubt that industrialization is the key to wealth and better living through technological innovations, economics and social transformations (Mgbemene et al, 2016) This industrialization is associated with environmental alteration and its impact on biodiversity poses a threat to human existence through life necessities, recreation and ecological functions (Shailender et al, 2009). Soil is a basic component of the ecosystem which serves as a reactor, transformer, integrator and storage (Oketayo et al, 2019), a medium of plants growth (Gangadhar, 2014) and plays an important role in the regulation of pollutants in the environment (Mohan and Sajayan, 2015) It serves as a major recipient of any substance that we throw or dispose of as a waste product in the environment (Sarkar et al, 2017), this poses direct pollution on the soil. The ability of plants to accumulate heavy metals into their organs may be used to monitor soil pollution and in particular the concentration of heavy metals (Malizia et al, 2012)
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