Investigation of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and chromium (Cr) in soils and vegetables; and the consequent health risks connected with ingestion of the vegetables was conducted at Agbabu farm (F) settlement close to bitumen mining area of Ondo State, Nigeria. Soil and eleven vegetables were sampled from ten farms (Fs) and analyzed for Pb, Cd, Zn and Cr concentrations. Health risk parameters such as daily intake of metal (DIM), health risk index (HRI), target health quotient (THQ), and total diet target health quotient (TTHQ) were evaluated. Except Cd, other metals in soils were below their respective maximum allowable concentrations (MACs) set for agro soils. Only Cd and Pb were higher in vegetables than their respective MACs. Bioconcentration factors (BCFs) of the metals were higher in Talinum triangulare but lower for Cd, Zn, Cr and Pb in Solanum macrocarpon, Vernonia amygdalina , Ocimum gratissimum , and Taraxacum officinale respectively. DIMs of Cd, Zn and Pb for adults and children were higher than 0.0035, 0.001 and 0.300 mg/kg/day respective values of oral reference doses (RfD). The DIMs of Cr ingestion by children were above the RfD of Cr for all vegetables, while DIMs of ingesting Cr by adults were above Cr RfD for some vegetables. The (HRI >1) for Pb, Cd and Zn; (THQ >1) for Pb, Cd; and (TTHQ >1) indicated health risks in connection with the ingestion of these vegetables. These health risks were higher for children.

This paper examined the effects of brewery wastewater on the quality of water in Ikpoba River which has experienced significant pollution over the years, with the intention of determining the main pollutant in the river water. Samples were recovered from eight (8) different locations covering a total distance of 750 m: one sample from upstream at 150 m from the effluent discharge location, two samples from effluents discharge point and five samples from downstream location at 150 m interval. Samples were taken twice monthly in March, May and July, 2014 during period of intense activity of production. The physcio-chemical analyses of the twenty-five (25) selected parameters were calculated and values obtained were used to calculate the water Quality index of the river. The results indicated that Ikpoba River is severely polluted (WQI = -5429792.89, in SN1, March, 2014) as a result of untreated brewery effluent hence Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to determine the parameter that contributes mainly to the pollution and those that contributed minimally. Evaluation of the PCA results shows that the only reoccurring parameter is Copper hence it is concluded that Copper is the only component factor that influences the river water quality throughout the period under study. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that any proposed treatment method must be targeted at the removal of copper in addition to other factors of high contributory effects.

Soil contamination resulting from petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants poses a fairly substantial hazard to human health and the environment. Phytoremediation, land farming, and chemico–biological stabilization were used to treat total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at a crude oil polluted soil site in Nigeria. A field pilot study was conducted by preparing nine cells with subcells attached to each serving as a control with an overall area of 1.53 m2. A complete block design method was used for the study. The prepared soil sample cells were divided into three groups with each group having approximately 300 kg of soil and delineated as low, medium, and high test plots. The low samples were spiked with 6.1 kg of crude oil, the medium samples were spiked with 12.2 kg of crudeoil, and the high samples were spiked with 18.3 kg of crude oil. Each row containing three cells with low, medium, and high concentrations were treated separately using the three treatment methods. The ratio of the soil sample to the organic amendment for the treatments was 2:1. The results showed over 90% degradation in the initial concentration of TPH and PAHs across different contaminant levels except in the control subcells where only 30% of degradation was recorded. Multivariate analysis of variance was employed to assess the significant difference in each treatment group while inferential statistics using a mean performance plot was used to ascertain the optimum treatment method. Land farming, chemico–biological stabilization, and phytoremediation ranked 1, 2, and 3, respectively. In conclusion, the three treatment methods employed all degraded the contaminants (TPH and PAHs) with land farming emerging as the best method.

Graphyne and its family members (GFMs) are allotropes of carbon (a class of 2D materials) having unique properties in form of structures, pores and atom hybridizations. Owing to their unique properties, GFMs have been widely utilized in various practical and theoretical applications. In the past decade, GFMs have received considerable attention in the area of water purification and desalination, especially in theoretical and computational aspects. More recently, GFMs have shown greater prospects in achieving optimal separation performance than the experimentally derived commercial polyamide membranes. In this review, recent theoretical and computational advances made in the GFMs research as it relates to water purification and desalination are summarized. Brief details on the properties of GFMs and the commonly used computational methods were described. More specifically, we systematically reviewed the various computational approaches employed with emphasis on the predicted permeability and selectivity of the GFM membranes. Finally, the current challenges limiting their large-scale practical applications coupled with the possible research directions for overcoming the challenges are proposed.

This study evaluated the degree of pollution of Ikpoba River due to the incessant discharge of industrial wastewater into the river. The entire study area was digitised and geo-referenced in order to generate the map of the study area as well as the sampling points. Eight (8) water samples were obtained from different locations from the direction of flow of industrial discharge into the river and also within the river. The coordinate of the sample collection points were acquired using handheld geographic positioning system (GPS). Water samples for physicochemical analysis were collected in a clean sterilized plastic container and analysis were carried out in the laboratory following standard procedure. The environmental variables measured were dissolved oxygen (DO), total suspended solid (TSS), pH, total dissolved solid (TDS), turbidity, concentration of nitrate and nitrite, chloride, phosphate, zinc, barium, tin, biological oxygen demand (BOD), conductivity, manganese, magnesium, calcium etc. Results obtained showed that most parameters investigated had increasing values. The calculated water quality index (WQI) from the sampling points ranged from 40.02 to 52.62, which indicates that most of the samples are bad as classified using National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) standard. This study therefore recommends that water quality around areas of industrial wastewater discharge in Ikpoba hill should be monitored and adequate treatment recommended where necessary.