Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Concentrations in Environmental Media in Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region
By Beauty M. T., Ephraim-Emmanuel, B. C.The release of
pollutants such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) due to oil and gas
activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is known to have calamitous
environmental and inadvertent human health effects. This study assessed the
concentrations of PAHs in soil, food (garri & pumpkin leaves) and water in
two selected communities in the Niger Delta. The study was conducted in Eleme,
an oil-producing Local Government Area (LGA) in Rivers State and Aboh Mbaise, a
non-oil-producing LGA in Imo State. Soil, food and water samples were collected
using pre-existing environmental media collection guidelines and sent to the
laboratory for extraction and quantification of PAHs using a Gas Chromatography
Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). The data obtained was analyzed using the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software and statistical
significance was set at 0.05. The sample mean concentration of PAHs in soil was
0.31±0.26 (5.03) mg/kg and 0.19±0.18 (2.95) mg/kg, garri was 0.56±0.45 (8.98)
mg/kg and 0.26±0.18 (4.17) mg/kg, pumpkin leaf was 0.03±0.02 (0.48) mg/kg and
0.04±0.02 (0.58) mg/kg and water was 0.02±0.02 (0.39) mg/l and 0.05±0.04 (0.72)
mg/l for Eleme and Aboh Mbaise respectively. There was a significant difference
in the PAHs concentrations in water (p-value: of 0.035) and pumpkin leaves
(p-value: 0.018) were also identified. The obtained ƩPAHs from the two
communities exceeded the acceptable limits for ƩPAHs set by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency. There is a need for the elimination of
pyrolytic and petrogenic sources of PAH pollution by concerned environmental
health stakeholders.