Determination of Heavy Metals Concentration in Soil around Sokoto Cement Company

Abstract

The main visible pollution generated by the cement industry corresponds to the dusts. The dusts can be emitted at every stage of the manufacturing process of the cement: extraction of the raw material, crushing, production. Eighty eight samples of soil were separately collected from the four directions of the company into polythene bags and brought to the laboratory for further analyses. The sample were digested using Aqua Regia Method, and the Hg, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb and Cu contents were determined by (AAS). Data generated were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to depict the differences and the means were separated with the Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT), where significant differences occur. It was found that the concentration of each heavy metal decreased with increase in distance from the industry. It was further found that heavy metals contributed differently to the pollution status of the environment with the eastern part impacting most. The concentration of heavy metals in the soil is high. The result of the analyses showed that Hg, Zn, Cd and Cr were high in the collected from four directions while Pb was foundto be the least. Sokoto Cement campany was found to produce the wastes/ dust that pollutes the environment.