Journal Article

Lead (Pb) Concentrations in Food, Water and Soil of Gold-Ore Mining Communities in Rafi Local Government, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

The Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of a suspected Lead (Pb) poisoning outbreak in Unguwan Magiro and Unguwan Kawu communities in Rafi LGA of Niger State on 15 May 2015, with a total of 48 cases including 14 deaths. This paper aims to estimate the level of Pb in food and ground water in the gold-ore mining communities of Rafi, North central of Nigeria. Samples were collected from 5 different communities in Rafi Local Government Area, which about 12 water samples and 26 food crops samples were analyzed for Pb using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The Pb concentrations in the samples were compared with maximum contaminant levels (MCL) values of WHO to ascertain the toxicity levels of Pb in the samples. The average Pb concentration in water ranges from 0.90-1.100 mg/L; food crop range from 1.127-1.791 mg/kg and crop stem range from 1.100-1.567 mg/kg. However, the MCL set by WHO for water, food stuff and crop stem were 0.01mg/L, 0.3 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg, respectively. Also, about 80 % of soil (top, sub,) and dust Pb concentrations which ranged as (1.012-1.295, 0.983- 1.736 and 154.7-537.3 mg/kg), respectively, were found within the MCL acceptable limit (400 mg/kg) approved by WHO. The findings demonstrated that the concentration of Pb in all analyzed samples exceeded the general MCL values set by WHO. The higher concentrations of Pb observed in all samples could indicate the contamination of samples by gold-ore mining activities. Therefore, all analyzed samples are thus unsafe for domestic uses

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