ASSESSMENT OF LEVELS AND HEALTH RISKS OF TRACE METALS IN SOILS AND SOME FOOD CROPS CULTIVATED IN FARMS AROUND ENYIGBA MINING SITES, EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA.

What is it about?

The unfettered mining activities at the site have caused the release of these metals in the local environment as the food crops cultivated around these sites bio-accumulated toxic levels of these metals above the recommended legal limits set by WHO especially Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Se, and Rb which could be a potential health concern to the local dwellers. Furthermore, evaluation of daily intake of metals and health risk index for Arachi hypogea, Manihot esculenta, Dioscorea rotundata Telfariria occidentalis, and a medicinal plant, Zanthoxulum zanthoxyloides showed that the consumers were unsafe and at risk of possibly long term health effects from dietary Pb, Zn, Ni, Cu, Mn, Rb and V. Besides, awareness creation is very important as this can educate the rural populace of the eminent dangers posed by the crops grown around the mines especially in communities where mining operations are ongoing.

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