Contamination and Ecological Risk Assessment of Trace Elements in Soils and Sediments at Balungu River Basin of Bongo District: An Index Analysis Approach to Avert Public Health Epidemics

International Journal of Geoinformatics and Geological Science

© 2020 by SSRG - IJGGS Journal

Volume 7 Issue 1

Year of Publication : 2020

Authors : Emmanuel Arhin, Fulera Salami, Atta Adjei Jnr Arhin

10.14445/23939206/IJGGS-V7I1P102

How to Cite?

Emmanuel Arhin, Fulera Salami, Atta Adjei Jnr Arhin, "Contamination and Ecological Risk Assessment of Trace Elements in Soils and Sediments at Balungu River Basin of Bongo District: An Index Analysis Approach to Avert Public Health Epidemics," SSRG International Journal of Geoinformatics and Geological Science, vol. 7,  no. 1, pp. 12-22, 2020. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23939206/IJGGS-V7I1P102

Abstract:

The contained elements in soils determine the health risk of population at a place. So in this study, the impact of soils on public health was determined by collecting 50 soil samples of 1 kg weight per sample. The samples were sun dried and sieved to <125 μm size fraction. Further processing on the sieve samples to form pellets for XRF analysis were carried out. Elements analysed were arsenic (As), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), potassium (K), vanadium (V), barium (Ba), iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni). The contamination status at each sample station was calculated for the elements. The results of all the elements except Cr showed lower measured concentrations in the samples compared with the background averages. The measured averages (mg/kg) in this study for As, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn were 6.89, 263, 8.26, 37.23,13.41, 02.96, 14.6, 4.54, 58.14 and 27.24 as against Turekian and Wedepohl background values measurements obtained in their 1961 study for As(10mg/kg), Ba (580mg/kg), Co (9.10mg/kg), Cr (8.26mg/kg), Cu (25mg/kg), Mn (550mg/kg), Ni (19mg/kg), Pb (19mg/kg), V (80 mg/kg) and Zn (60mg/kg). , This indicated the non-pollution status of 10 elements except CrCorrespondingly, it found the need for further examination on Cr to know the oxidation states because Cr (VI) has been found to be toxic for humans whereas Cr (III) plays an important role in glucose metabolism in man. The toxic elements As and Pb also showed depletion implying diseases that relate to As and Pb will be nonexistence or will be minimal. But the understanding of disease patterns will depend on the knowledge of element distribution and concentration patterns. This thus makes prioritization of ecologic.

Keywords:

Human health, Environment, Pollution load, Geo-accumulation, Essential element

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