Heavy Metals Pollutions within Lagos South Western Nigeria

Abstract

Environmental pollution is a global phenomenon which could results from both natural and anthropogenic activities which has resulted to several health and physiological problems in both plants and animals. Dump sites’ soils of and Borehole waters from Ojota, Ebutte-Meta, Igando and Bariga in Lagos state were analyzed for heavy metals using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The data obtained were further subjected to contamination factor and pollution indices analyses. The results obtained showed lead (Pb) to be most concentrated in the soils and ranged from 0.22 ppm to 2.50 ppm, this was followed by the value recorded for zinc (Zn) which was between 0.0015 ppm to 0.020 ppm. The least observed metal in all the soil sample stations was nickel (Ni) which ranged from 0.001 ppm to 0.010 ppm. On the other hand, only water samples from Ojota and Ebutte-Meta were detectable with Pb concentration values of 0.38 ppm and 0.0028 ppm, Ni concentration values of 0.0052 ppm and 0.009 ppm, Zn concentration values of 0.0039 ppm and 0.0020 ppm respectively. On subjecting the concentration of the heavy metals to contamination factor (CF) revealed very slight contamination of the different soils from different areas. There was also very slight contamination of the waters from Ojota and Ebutte-Meta by metals, except for Igando and Bariga that were moderately and severely contaminated by the metals respectively. The Pollution Index (PI) showed that the soils and waters samples are unpolluted with the heavy metals.