Use of Siam weed biomarker in assessing heavy metal contaminations in traffic and solid waste polluted areas

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The ability of Chromolaena odorata to accumulate and serve as biomarker to lead and cadmium metals pollution load had been revealed by this study. Samples of soils and Siam weed were collected to assess impacts of solid waste disposal and traffic density on the environment. Composite sample were collected from a solid waste dumpsite, three traffic polluted areas with varying traffic density and a background site distant from traffic. Concentration of eight elements: cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, nickel, lead and zinc were determined in soil and plant samples and correlated together. Accumulative factors like pollution load index, transfer factor, contamination factor, enrichment factor were calculated for the metals in both plants and soils and used as basis for interpreting the state of the environment and ability of C. odorata to accumulate metals. The accumulative factors of plants were generally greater than that of soil samples indicating increased accumulative capacity of the plant. The accumulations of lead and cadmium in C. odorata were remarkable with contamination factor 10.51 and 23.50, respectively and mean enrichment factors 3.52 and 6.93, respectively. Other metals had lower accumulative factors. The distribution of metals and calculated factors placed solid waste disposal site as the most polluted site while the trend observed in areas with traffic pollution depicts the ability of C. odorata to clean up metal pollution by accumulating them. It can therefore be suggested that solid waste disposal negatively affects the environment more than traffic pollution subject to the volume of traffic.

Copper, nickel and zinc contamination in soils within the precincts of mining and landfilling environments

“…I geo and CF have been widely used (Akoto et al 2008;Agunbiade and Fawale 2009;Š muc et al 2009;Seshan et al 2010) to evaluate heavy metal contamination in terrestrial, aquatic, and marine environments. The formula used to determine I geo is indicated in Eq.…”

“…In this study, the concentrations of the heavy metals in the control samples were used as the background concentration values to determine both I geo and CF. Interpretation of I geo and CF were done according to the classes described by Ji et al (2008); Agunbiade and Fawale (2009);and Seshan et al (2010), and are explained in Table 2.…”

Lead, Cadmium and Iron Concentrations in <i>Zea Mays</i> Grown Within the Vicinity of Ori-Ile Battery Waste Dumpsite, Olodo, Ibadan, Nigeria

“…Contamination and transfer Factors (CF, TF) were determined for soil and maize respectively using the methods adopted by Agunbiade and Fawale [35] and Cui et al [36]. 1.…”

A chemometric approach to study the effects of motorway proximity on microelements content in wheat and soil

“…Due to the slow Pb, Cd, As and Hg excretion from organisms, carcinogenic and mutagenic effects caused by chronic toxicity may occur (Ybanez and Montoro 1996;Abrahams 2002;Agunbiade and Fawale 2009), along with acute intoxication caused by toxic doses taken over extended periods (6 months to 2 years).…”