Impact of motor parks on the concentration of heavy metals in some selected urban areas of Benue state, Nigeria

The determination of Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in soils within motor parks in some selected local government areas of Benue state were carried out with Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric technique. The method developed by the United State Environmental Protection Agency for (total sobbed) heavy metals in soils, sediments and sludges was used in the preparation of the soil samples. Generally the ranges and mean concentrations (μg/g) of metals in motor park soils were 3.00-4.93 (4.37±0.49), 1.00-1.87 (1.46±0.31), 41.67-65.93 (52.46±7.85),301.67- 390.00(346.18±37.56), 14.20-19.13 (16.72±1.74), 205.33-382.67 (251.22±41.96) and 103.33-171.67(136.25±22.00) for Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn respectively. The concentration of Pb was the highest. The degree of contamination by each metal was estimated by the enrichment factors. The enrichment factors obtained for Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in motor parks were 15.07, 1.78, 2.92, 2.41, 1.92, 76.36 and 13.58 respectively. The interelement correlation was found among metals in the soils using Pearson’s correlation co-efficient. There were positive correlations among the metals determined. Metals such as Pb, Cd, and Zn shows high degree of contamination, while Co, Cu, Mn and Ni shows low degree of contamination in the study sites.

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