Nuclear and Atomic Methods Applied in the Determination of Some Heavy Polluting Elements in Some Soil Samples around Industrial Locations in Kano-Nigeria

Abstract

Heavy metals (HM) can have a serious impact if released into environment even in trace quantities. These can enter into food chain from aquatic and agricultural ecosystems and threaten human health indirectly. An experiment was carried out to investigate some heavy elements from soil samples of different industrial locations of Kano state, Nigeria. The techniques used were Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). The order of average contents of metals in soil samples was Mn>Fe>Zn>Cu>Pb>Cd>Cr>Ni and their concentration values ranged from (31.8 to 18.1), (21.1 to 10.3), (8.8 to 2.01), (7.17 to 1.72), (4.02 to 1.71), (2.18 to 0.19), (1.71 to 0.22) and (0.28 to 0.21) mg/kg, respectively. The results also indicated that Fe contents are higher than for Pb in each location and the two different techniques have shown good agreement with each other. The concentrations are within acceptable limits.

Keywords: Heavy Metals, Neutron Activation Analysis, Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, Soil Samples