EVALUATION OF HEAVY METALS IN CONSUMABLE VEGETABLES IN AZARA TOWN OF NASARAWA STATE

Abstract: Environmental pollution due to mining activities has become a reoccurring incident in the world. This poses great health challenges to the victims through food/water contamination. Azara community has experienced increased mining activities due to presence of vast mineral resources, most of which are done locally using crude methods. This study investigated the presence of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, Mn and Fe) concentration in commonly consumed vegetables namely Vernonia amygdalina, Cucumis reticulatus, Abelmuschuses culentus, Amaranthus dubius, Talinum fruticosum and Telfairia occidentalis in Azara community, Nasarawa state, Nigeria. The vegetable samples were analyzed with Atomic Absorbtion Spectrophotometer Agilent FS240AA for heavy metals. All the samples collected from the study site showed detectable levels of some of the heavy metals analyzed except in Talinum fruticosum. The heavy metals were present at varying concentrations ranging from 0.016-9.654mg/kg. The concentration of Ni was found to be above the WHO permissible limit in all samples, level of Pb was above the permissible limit in all samples except for Talinum fruticosum, while Mn was above the limit in all except for Telfairia occidentalis and Cucumis reticulatus. The metal pollution index (MPI) was extremely high in Talinum fruticosum and Abelmuschuses culentus with 1.3and 1.1 respectively, while Amaranthus dubius and Cucumis reticulatus had MPI of slightly above average with 0.6858 and 0.69 respectively. The health risk index (HRI) of metals ranged from 0.00-0.326mg/kg for Cd; 0.481-2.927mg/kg for Pb; 0.01-0.209mg/kg for Cu; 0.42-1.596mg/kg for Ni; 0.23-0.64mg/kg for Mn and 0.001-0.04mg/kg for Fe, respectively. The estimated Health Risk Index (HRI) for Pb and Ni exceeded the limit in all except for Talinum fruticosum (Pb), Telfairia occidentalis (Ni), Vernonia amygdalina (Ni) for adults, Cucumis reticulatus and Amaranthus dubius (Ni). The result of the study indicated a likelihood of future health risk which may arise from heavy meatal toxicity due to elevated HRI and MPI. Keywords: Metals, limit, mining, toxicity and pollution. Title: EVALUATION OF HEAVY METALS IN CONSUMABLE VEGETABLES IN AZARA TOWN OF NASARAWA STATE Author: Ozoana, S.C., Zaruwa, M.Z., Ubarorji, Ik. I., Ofoegbu, C.O. International Journal of Recent Research in Interdisciplinary Sciences (IJRRIS) ISSN 2350-1049 Vol. 10, Issue 3, July 2023 - September 2023 Page No: 8-16 Paper Publications Website: www.paperpublications.org Published Date: 06-July-2023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8120897 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.paperpublications.org/upload/book/EVALUATION%20OF%20HEAVY%20METALS-06072023-4.pdfInternational Journal of Recent Research in Interdisciplinary Sciences (IJRRIS), ISSN 2350-1049, Paper Publications, Website: www.paperpublications.or