A Study on Heavy Metal Content of Soil in Garki Area Council of Abuja, Nigeria

Suleiman Kabiru; Rufai Yakubu; Aminu Lukman; Toba Akintola; Mathias Alegbemi; Fatimat Musa

Suleiman Kabiru Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, P.M.B. 1026, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria.
Rufai Yakubu Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, P.M.B. 1026, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria.
Aminu Lukman Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, P.M.B. 1026, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria.
Toba Akintola Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, P.M.B. 1026, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria.
Mathias Alegbemi Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, P.M.B. 1026, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria.
Fatimat Musa Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, P.M.B. 1026, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria.

Keywords: Heavy metals, soil, concentration, traffic density

Abstract

This study investigates the concentration of Heavy Metals in soil sample from 15 different locations in Garki area of Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T) Abuja, Nigeria. The soil PH of the sample sites varies on the average from 6.44 to 7.24 in water indicating only a slightly acidic to neural. The level of Cu, Cd, Pb, Ni, Mn, and Zn were determined using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results obtained indicated that these metals on dry weight basis in the soil ranged between (36.60-525.0 g/g) Pb, (15.00-74.40 g/g) Cu, (17.50-29.80 g/g) Zn, (0.7-2.20 g/g) Cd, (16.16-24.60 g/g) Ni, and (270-558.0 g/g) Mn. From the results, areas with high traffic density seem to be relatively high in concentration of tested metals than those from less traffic density. A significant correlation was found between traffic density and metal concentrations.

Generally, the concentrations obtained were much higher than the tolerable limit for safe environment as prescribed by National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and World Health Organization (WHO).