Abstract
The study investigates heavy metal concentrations in vegetables, earthworms and dumpsite farms in Port Harcourt city. Samples were collected from the road sides, dump sites and control sites. Metals investigated were cadmium, nickel, copper, zinc and lead. These were analyzed using Atomic AbsorptionSpectrophotometer (AAS). The earthworm collected from road side have highest concentrations of zinc, nickel and copper. The road side vegetables have the highest lead concentration with Mean±SD value of 70.362±37.523 mg/kg followed by dump site with Mean±SD value of 10.937±4.781 mg/kg, p<0.05. Lead was not detected in the earthworm samples from the three sampling locations. The dumpsite earthworms have the highest concentration of cadmium with Mean values of 8.326±1.02 mg/kg, p<0.01 followed by road side with Mean±SD value of 7.436±1.242 mg/kg, p<0.05. Cadmium was not detected in soil samples from the three locations. The leafy vegetables contained the highest values of most heavy metals especially those collected from the road side farm and the dumpsite farm. All the soil samples from the three locations were below DPR target value. Continuous monitoring is highly essential.
Highlights
Accumulation of toxic heavy metals in the environment poses a great threat to public health and the natural ecosystem
Sample collection Soil samples, Pumpkin leaf samples and earthworms were taken from the two study areas and the control area at 3 stations per site along a gradient of pollution, the first station being the closest to the point source at (5m), second station at (10m) and third station at (15m) from the source of contamination for the Road side, while for the dumpsite, the farm was located 30m away from 132 | Nigerian Annals of Pure and Applied Sciences the dumpsite with leacheate coming from the dumpsite as runoff as a form of organic manure to the farm
Cadmium concentration was found to be highest in earthworm samples from the dumpsite with Mean values of 8.326±1.02 mg/kg, p
Summary
Accumulation of toxic heavy metals in the environment poses a great threat to public health and the natural ecosystem. Elevated heavy metal concentrations may become toxic to biotas and disrupt the natural biological and ecological processes leading to harmful effects on biodiversity (Ogboi 2012). Increasing concentration of heavy metals in the food chain could be dangerous to human health. Heavy metals toxicity among human populations through the food chain has been reported in many countries including Nigeria (Wilson and Pyatt, 2007). This has made this problem a great concern both at local and international fora in the recent times. This has made this problem a great concern both at local and international fora in the recent times. (Wilson and Pyatt 2007)
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