Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination of Surface Dust from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment at Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

In developing countries, electronic waste is a subject of concern in the environmental challenge due to the import of electronics that are not useful from developed countries. The developed country exports the waste as a source of donation to the developing country but the majority of those electronics are waste that contains toxic metals which are harmful to human health. This research work assessed electronic dumpsite to detect the concentrations of heavy metals present in the soil and around the dumpsites. Three dumpsites were considered in the Odogbolu Local government area of Ogun State where the soil samples in the sites were tested to know the concentration of heavy metals present which constitutes an environmental hazard to both human beings and the ecosystem. This was compared with a control that was taken from an electronic waste free site. The atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) was used for the analysis and the heavy metals analysed were Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr), Zinc (Zn), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb), Cobalt (Co), Iron (Fe) and Arsenic (As). Our findings show that zinc and iron exist in the soil at high concentrations. When the data compared with WHO’s standard confirmed that Zinc, Iron, and lead are of higher concentration in the samples. However, zinc intake beyond the permissible limits produces toxic effects in the immune system, iron causes nausea and stomach pain while lead causes physical disorders.