Heavy metals and phthalates in water, soil and plant from automobile mechanic villages in Abeokuta

Abstract

Phthalates and heavy metals are very toxic and are environmental pollutants. This study was aimed at determining the concentrations of  phthalates and heavy metals in water from selected mechanic villages in two locations in Abeokuta (Idi-aba and Camp). The soil, plant  and water samples were digested with concentrated HNO₃ and analyzed for heavy metals (Cd, Mn, Fe, Cu and Pb) using Atomic  Absorption Spectrometer. High Performance Liquid Chromatography- UV Spectrometer was used to quantify phthalates in the water  samples which include Diethyl phthalates (DEP), Di-n-propyl phthalates (DPP), Di-n-butyl phthalates (DBP) and Diethylhexyl phthalates  (DEHP) prior to which the water samples had been extracted with dichloromethane and cleaned-up into fractions. The result indicated  the presence of all metals considered. The concentrations were compared with WHO (World Health Organization) standards. The result  showed that Fe had the highest concentrations in all samples varied from 0.3 - 0.7 mg/L as against WHO standard (0.3 mg/L). The result  obtained from the phthalates analysis showed that DEHP was present in all the samples obtained from the mechanic villages which is a  common phthalate pollutant with concentration ranging between 0.02 to 3.53 ppb. The result obtained showed that in all the soil  samples, Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) had the highest concentration ranging from 30.6 - 90.9, 111.5 - 137.6 and 7.7 - 8.0 mg/ kg as against their WHO benchmarks (36, 85 and 0.8 mg/kg) respectively. The concentration of the heavy metals and phthalates showed  that the activities of the mechanic villages have moderate effect on the soil, plant and water samples.