Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Swampy Agricultural Soils in Nasarawa West, Nigeria

Date

2018-12-01

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Department of Physics, Nasarawa State University Keffi

Abstract

In this study, the health risk caused by heavy metals in swampy agricultural soil of Nasarawa west was assessed. A total of 50 soil samples from five local government of Nasarawa west (10 from each) were collected and analyzed for Asernic (As), Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Nikel (Ni) and Zinc (Zn) present in the samples using XRF Spectrometry at Center for Energy Research and Development (CERD) in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile lfe. Osun State, Nigeria. Measured concentrations of these heavy metals were then used to calculate the health risk for adults and children. The result show that the concentrations are in the order of Ni> Cd> Zn>Pb>As which are all below the permissible level except for As which appear to be higher than the permissible levels. The Hazard Index (HI) of all the pathways for adults and children were found to be 1.55 and 12.19 respectively. These values are greater than 1 which is the tolerance level for both adults and children. These makes non- carcinogenic effects significant to the adult’s population and pose serious non- carcinogenic effect on children in those areas. The carcinogenic risk values were found to be both higher than acceptable values. This implies that there is a probability that 1 adult in about 10,000 may be affected.

Description

Keywords

XRF spectrometry, heavy metals, average daily intake, carcinogenic risk, noncarcinogenic risk

Citation

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