Assessment of Heavy Metal Contents and Associated Health Risks in Groundwater Samples Around Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan, Nigeria Students' Residential Areas
Keywords:
Groundwater, Heavy metal, Health riskAbstract
Groundwater is a major source of water for students at the Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan students’ residential areas. Hence, the quality of water of the study was determined by assessing the heavy metal contents and evaluating the associated health risks. A total of ten samples (five boreholes and five Wells) were collected from five different locations within the study area. Coordinates of the sampling points were taken with the aid of global pointing system while atomic absorption spectrometer was employed to determine the concentration of the heavy metal in the samples. Results of the heavy metal contents (mg/L) showed: Pb (BDL - 0.65), Zn (2.50 - 6.10), Mn (0.35 - 2.95), Cr (BDL - 20.43), Cd (0.18 - 0.88), Ni (1.25 - 7.80), Fe (BDL - 9.85) and Cu (0.35 - 6.40). Risk parameters such as contamination factor (CF), degree of contamination (DoC), and a Quantification of contamination index (QC) were also evaluated. DoC showed a very high indication of contamination of the groundwater samples of the study while QC indicates that most of the contamination is of anthropogenic origin. In order to assess the safety of the students’ populace due to oral and dermal exposure, average daily dose (ADD), hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard Index (HI) were evaluated. The values ranged as follows: ADDoral (0.0000 - 8.00 × 10-5) mg/L/day; ADDdermal (0.0000 - 9.63 × 10-12) mg/L/day ; HQoral (0.0000 - 9.77× 10-5) ; HQdermal (0.0000 - 9.65 × 10-15) ; HIoral (1.50 × 10-1) and HIdermal (0.0000 - 7.06 × 10-7). All the values obtained were below the provisional tolerable daily intake. Hence, there may be no potential risks for ingestion of the groundwater samples of the study. However, the routine monitoring of the groundwater samples should be encouraged to curtail health- related risks from exposure to heavy metal toxicity.