scholarly journals Assessment of Heavy Metals Concentration in Swampy Agricultural Soil of Nasarawa West, Nigeria

Author(s):  
Abbas Abdullahi Auta ◽  
Umar Ibrahim ◽  
Abdullahi Abubakar Mundi ◽  
Idris Mohammed Mustapha ◽  
Musa Usman Sarki

Aim: This research was carried out to investigate the concentration of heavy metals in swampy agricultural soil of Nasarawa west, Nigeria. Study Design: To compare the swampy soil heavy metal concentrations with regulatory standard or allowable values by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other National and International standards.  Place and Duration of Study: Department of Physics, Nasarawa State University Keffi between January, 2018 and October, 2018. Methodology: Ten soil samples from each of thefive sampling locations (Karu, Keffi, Kokona, Nasarawa, and Toto) were randomly collected. A total of fifty (50) soil sampleswere collected within the period of one week.  The collected samples were stored in polyethylene bag and labeled properly and taken to the Center for Energy Research and Development (CERD) at Obafemi Awolowo University Ile- ife Osun State, Nigeria. At CERD, elemental analysis was carried out for the fifty sample using X- ray fluorescent spectrometry analyzer. Results: The range of mean concentration of Zn, As, Cd, Pb, Fe, Ni, and Cu (in KR, KF, KK, NS, and TT locations) are 243.60- 502.80 mg/kg, 7.40- 37.00mg/kg, 260.90- 524.50 mg/kg, 167.80- 336.60 mg/kg, 20222.90- 58170.50 mg/kg, 342.20- 555.10 mg/kg, and 266.60- 515.90 mg/kg respectively. The average mean of all the sample locations are found to be higher than the WHO allowable concentration limits of As (20 mg/kg), Pb (100 mg/kg), Cd (3 mg/kg), Zn (300 mg/kg), Fe (n.a), Ni (50 mg/kg), and Cu (100 mg/kg)respectively. There is high concentration Zn, As, Cd, Pb, Fe, Ni, and Cu in the swampy soil. Conclusion: The results indicates that the swampy agricultural soils of Nasarawa west (Karu, Keffi, Kokona, Nasarawa, and Toto) are contaminated with toxic metals (Zn, As, Cd, Pb, Fe, Ni, and Cu).

Author(s):  
Asad Abbas ◽  
Ijaz Hussain ◽  
Abdul Wahab ◽  
Aisha Shafique ◽  
Maryam Zaheer

Earth is a blue planet because of the rudimentary cause of life, that is water. All the biochemical reactions which are pre-requisite for nourishing life of animals and plants, use water as a basic element. Being a universal solvent, it dissolves almost all minerals present in the soil. It is one of the basic and necessary compounds responsible for the survival of life. The main purpose of research was to determine the quality of groundwater in Kasur near the tanneries. The study is focused on the bacteriological and physicochemical (pH, Temperature, DO, BOD, CO2, TOSM, TDS, TM and heavy metals) parameters. We selected four sites as Din Garh, Qatal Garhi, Mangal Mandi and Kot Haleem Khan for investigation. Coliforms were present in high concentration that produce viruses and bacterial diseases such as typhoid fever, hepatitis, gastrocnemii, dysentery and ear infections. World Health Organization (WHO) has justified that the drinkable water must have zero level of coliform and E.coli. Regarding the Total Suspended Matter (TSM), the values ranged from 0.3-0.5g/l in DIN GHARH, 0.2-0.5g/l in QATAL GHARHI, 0.2-0.5g/l in MANGAL MANDI and 0.2-0.6g/l in KOT HALEEM KHAN. The study concludes that the water pollution due to tanneries in Kasur have changed the bacteriological and physicochemical properties of ground water to a considerable level which is not drinkable. It also conclude that groundwater was contaminated with high concentrations of BOD, TOSM, TDS, TM and Heavy metals due to discharge of industrial effluents.


2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 18-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.O. Akinbile

Physical, chemical and bacteriological analyses were carried out of water samples from three boreholes located near a landfill, and or soil samples at Akure, Nigeria, to ascertain the effect of the dumpsite on the groundwater and soil quality. The samples from borehole locations with radial distances of 50, 80, and 100 m, respectively, away from the landfill and twelve soil samples collected at distances 0 (dump centre), 10, 20, and 30 m away from the refuse dump were analysed. The parameters determined were the turbidity, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), total iron, nitrate, nitrite, chloride, calcium and heavy metals like copper, zinc, and lead. Most of these parameters indicated pollution but were below the World Health Organization (WHO) limits for consumption. The pH ranged from 5.7 to 6.8 indicating toxic pollution, the turbidity values were between 1.6 and 6.6 NTU, and the temperature ranged from 26.5°C to 27.5°C. The concentrations of iron, nitrate, nitrite and calcium ranged from 0.9 to 1.4, 30 to 61, 0.7 to 0.9, and 17 to 122 mg/l, respectively. Out of heavy metals, zinc ranged between 3.3 and 5.4 mg/l and lead ranged from 1.1 to 1.2 mg/l. Soil water holding capacity, porosity, pH, organic matter, organic carbon and organic nitrogen ranged from 38 to 54, 44 to 48, 6.9–7.5, 2.44–4.27, 1.42–2.48, and 0.12–0.21%, respectively. Statistical analyses indicated significant differences at 95% level. The results showed that all the boreholes were not strongly polluted but require treatment before use while the soil is absolutely unsuitable for the crop production. Re-designing of sanitary landfills to prevent leachate from getting to the water table, adoption of clean technology for recycling greenhouse gases and a sustainable land management programme for reclamation are recommended.


2021 ◽  
pp. 46-51
Author(s):  
Wilfred–Ekprikpo P. C.

This study investigated the heavy metal concentrations in different organs such as gills, muscles, liver and gatro-intestinal tract (GIT) of two species of Goby: Porogobius schelegelii and Bathygobius soporator from Buguma Creek, Rivers State, Nigeria. The fish samples were collected from the creek and were preserved in ice chest box and transported to the laboratory for analysis. Samples were digested by using standard laboratory methods. The concentrations of metals were analyzed using a Varian AA240 Fast Sequential Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The Results obtained indicated that heavy metals such as Chromium (Cr), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Cadmium (Cd), and Nickel (Ni) were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the liver of the two species than in the muscle, gills and the GIT. Comparatively, the concentrations of these metals were higher in the specie B.soporator than P. schelegelii in all the organs of the fishes under consideration. The heavy metal concentrations recorded in this study were above the limits recommended by Food and Agricultural Organization/ World Health Organization. The high concentration of heavy metals above permissible level suggests the need for caution during the consumption of these species from Buguma Creek due to health implications associated with heavy metals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 239784732098525
Author(s):  
Keneth Iceland Kasozi ◽  
Eric Oloya Otim ◽  
Herbert Izo Ninsiima ◽  
Gerald Zirintunda ◽  
Andrew Tamale ◽  
...  

Background: Environmental contamination with elevated levels of copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr6+), cadmium (Cd), and nickel (Ni)—all states of which are found in Uganda—raises health risk to the public. Pb, Cr6+, Cd, and Ni for instance are generally considered nonessential to cellular functions, notwithstanding the importance of the oxidative state of the metals in bioavailability. As such, we aimed in this study (i) to evaluate heavy metal concentrations in four vegetables from a typical open-air market in Uganda, (ii) to assess the safety of consuming these vegetables against the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended limits of heavy metals consumption, and (iii) to formulate a model of estimated daily intake (EDI) among consumers in the country. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in five georeferenced markets of Bushenyi district in January 2020. Amaranthus, cabbages, scarlet eggplants, and tomatoes were collected from open markets, processed, and analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry. Modeled EDI, principal component (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were conducted to identify relationships in the samples. Results: The levels of essential elements in the four vegetables were found to fall from Co > Cu > Fe > Zn. Those of non-essential metals were significantly higher and followed the pattern Cd > Cr > Pb > Ni. The highest EDI values were those of Cu in scarlet eggplants, Zn in amaranthus, Fe in amaranthus, Co in amaranthus, Pb in cabbages, total Cr in scarlet eggplant, Cd in cabbages and tomatoes, and Ni in cabbages. In comparison to international limits, EDIs for Zn, Cu, Co and Fe were low while Ni in cabbages were high. PCA showed high variations in scarlet eggplant and amaranthus. The study vegetables were found to be related with each other, not according to the location of the markets from where they were obtained, but according to their species by CA. Conclusion: The presence of non-essential elements above WHO limits raises policy challenges for the consumption and marketing of vegetables in the study area. Furthermore, low EDIs of essential elements in the vegetables create demand for nutritious foods to promote healthy communities.


Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Aleem ◽  
Cao Shun ◽  
Chao Li ◽  
Arslan Aslam ◽  
Wu Yang ◽  
...  

The industrial augmentation and unguided anthropogenic activities contaminate water sources in most parts of the world especially in developing countries like Pakistan. High concentration of pollutants in groundwater affects human, soil, and crop health badly. The present study was conducted to investigate groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation purposes in an industrial zone of Pakistan. A GIS tool was used to investigate the spatial distribution of different physico-chemical parameters. In this study, the average results exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) and National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) were found for pH 7.84, total dissolved solids (TDS) 1492 mg/L, phosphate 0.51 mg/L, dissolved oxygen (DO) 9.92% saturation, F-coli 6.48 colonies/100 mL, Na+ 366 mg/L, HCO3− 771 mg/L, sulfate 251 mg/L, chlorides 427 mg/L, total hardness (as CaCO3) 292 mg/L, electrical conductivity (EC) 2408 μS/cm, iron (Fe) 0.48 mg/L, chrome (Cr) 0.50 mg/L, arsenic (As) 0.04 mg/L, total phosphorus (TP) 0.17 mg/L, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) 9.76 (in meq/L), residual sodium carbonate (RSC) 9.28 meq/L, % ion balance 14.4 (in meq/L), percentage sodium ion (% Na+) concentration 58.9 meq/L, and water quality index (WQI) 69.0. The trend of cations and anions were (in meq/L) Na > Mg > Ca > K and HCO3 > Cl > CO3 > SO4 respectively. Although the results of the present study showed poor conditions of the groundwater for drinking as WQI but and irrigation purposes as SAR, it needs to improve some more conditions for the provision of safe drinking water and irrigation water quality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-19
Author(s):  
Jessica Carlisle

During the past 30 years the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has developed an extensive hospital-based mental health system culminating in the passing of a mental health law in 2014. This legislation embodies many of the international standards promoted by the World Health Organization. However, the mechanisms for protecting the human rights of psychiatric patients are neither sufficiently independent nor adequately robust.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (Extra-D) ◽  
pp. 480-490
Author(s):  
Tatyana Viktorovna Gololobova ◽  
Salavat Khamitovich Sarmanaev ◽  
Sergey Zenin ◽  
Aleksey Yuryevich Shirokov ◽  
Georgiy Nikolaevich Suvorov

The study aims at identifying the core rules and standards for forming a legal model of inter-action between levels of public authority in a federal state during a pandemic. The authors have considered documents that regulate the process of interaction between public authorities during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the doctrinal sources of law in Belgium, Germany, Canada, the USA, Switzerland, and Australia. In addition, they have analyzed the acts of the World Health Organization adopted during the COVID-19 epidemic and containing recom-mendations on the interaction of public authorities during a pandemic. The research methods were as follows: general philosophical, general and special scientific (structural-legal, compara-tive-legal, and formal-legal The authors have concluded that it is possible to introduce separate rules and standards for such interaction of public authorities during the period of a pandemic into the Russian legal system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-36
Author(s):  
Vera L. Gritsinskaya ◽  
Valeria P. Novikova

Anthropometric evaluation is an essential feature of pediatric evaluation. Different countries use different approaches in pediatric growth assessment. The article presents a comparative analysis of the body length (BL) indicators of modern school-age children in St. Petersburg with regional standards (1991) and international standards (WHO Growth Reference 2007). Anthropometric evaluation was conducted among 6207 children aged 7 to 17 years; the median, standard deviation and centile distribution of the BL values of school-age children were determined. We found that the values of BL of modern school-age children are higher than that their peers had thirty years ago; in boys, the maximum difference is found during the pubertal growth spurt; Non-parametric and parametric indicators of BL in senior pupils of St. Petersburg are higher than in the standards of the World Health Organization; in junior schoolchildren no difference was found. The data we obtained create the prerequisites for the development of modern regional standards for growth assessment of children and school-age children in St. Petersburg and their practical use for pediatric examinations.


Biomedical wastes management is one of the most important issues in public health centers and it is a crucial issue for environmental sectors as well. Wrong and inappropriate management treat the life of human beings in Kandahar City. Currently the population of this city has exponentially increased than ever because of the immigration of many people from neighboring provinces. This research was conducted in 15 districts of Kandahar public and private health care centers to identify the current biomedical waste management in Kandahar city. The qualitative and quantitative date was collected through a questionnaire from public and private hospitals, clinics and health care centers. In addition, discarding, segregating, labeling, transporting and disposing system of biomedical waste were observed. The result showed that 65.3% newly hired biomedical waste staff not received training or instruction. Furthermore, the result indicates that 44% generated biomedical wastes are regulated by municipality and color coding is not followed accordingly. Current biomedical waste is not appropriate based on designed international standards and the criteria suggested by world health organization.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-An Kung ◽  
Chung-Guei Huang ◽  
Sheng-Yu Huang ◽  
Kuan-Ting Liu ◽  
Peng-Nien Huang ◽  
...  

The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the importance of an international standard (IS) for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titer detection, with the aim of calibrating different diagnostic techniques. In this study, IS was applied to calibrate neutralizing antibody titers (IU/mL) and binding antibody titers (BAU/mL) in response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Serum samples were collected from participants receiving the Moderna (n = 20) and Pfizer (n = 20) vaccines at three time points: pre-vaccination, after one dose, and after two doses. We obtained geometric mean titers of 1404.16 and 928.75 IU/mL for neutralizing antibodies after two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, respectively. These values provide an important baseline for vaccine development and the implementation of non-inferiority trials. We also compared three commercially available kits from Roche, Abbott, and MeDiPro for the detection of COVID-19 antibodies based on binding affinity to S1 and/or RBD. Our results demonstrated that antibody titers measured by commercial assays are highly correlated with neutralizing antibody titers calibrated by IS.


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