Heavy metal concentration in fluted pumpkin and earthworm from roadside and dumpsite farms in Port Harcourt City, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigates heavy metal concentrations in vegetables, earthworms and dumpsite farms in Port Harcourt city. Samples were collected from the road sides, dump sites and control sites. Metals investigated were cadmium, nickel, copper, zinc and lead. These were analyzed using Atomic Absorption
Spectrophotometer (AAS). The earthworm collected from road side have highest concentrations of zinc, nickel and copper. The road side vegetables have the highest lead concentration with Mean±SD value of 70.362±37.523 mg/kg followed by dump site with Mean±SD value of 10.937±4.781 mg/kg, p<0.05. Lead was not detected in the earthworm samples from the three sampling locations. The dumpsite earthworms have the highest concentration of cadmium with Mean values of 8.326±1.02 mg/kg, p<0.01 followed by road side with Mean±SD value of 7.436±1.242 mg/kg, p<0.05. Cadmium was not detected in soil samples from the three locations. The leafy vegetables contained the highest values of most heavy metals especially those collected from the road side farm and the dumpsite farm. All the soil samples from the three locations were below DPR target value. Continuous monitoring is highly essential.