Toxicity Risks of Selected Heavy Metal on Dwellers from Building Materials Used in Nigeria

Abstract

Chemical toxicity risks from 14 different brands of building materials such as Cements, tiles, marbles and sands were analysed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). This study is aimed at determining the risk exposure to dweller of different age groups. The digested samples analysed using ICP-MS for the concentrations of Cr, Pb, Zn, Ni, Fe, As and Cd varies from 10 to 183, 8.96 to 68.70, 35.4 to 733.7, 14.4 to 690.5, 0.95 to 4.64 and 0.7 to 14.7 mgkg−1respectively. Statistical Analysis showed that 44% of the Concentrations of Toxic metals measured in the building material samples come from Ni, the scree plots of dermal and inhalation risks exposure to children aged from 0.5 to 11 years showed sharp drop after Ni metal compared to adult with ages ranges from 12 to 70 years where the drop is steady from the first factor. This indicated that Adults are not over-exposed compared to children to these heavy metals. The High factor value of 2.786 was seen in Goodwill Verified. Tile High factor scores were discovered from the exposure of children to both dermal and inhalation risks compared to the Adults. Some of these concentrations and risks exceed the permissible limits of the European Regulatory Standards and USEPA. Significantly, these chemical toxicity risks of heavy metal contents in the building materials may pose health risks on dwellers especially the under-aged children.