Heavy Metal Analysis Of Drinking Water, Pome Contaminated Soil, Palm Oil Mill Effluent, And Selected Vegetable Grown In Pome Irrigated Farmland In Eziisu, Palm Oil Mill Site Of Umuaka, Njaba, Imo State :- Chukwu, Samuel E

ABSTRACT xii This study investigated heavy metal content in palm oil mill effluent, palm oil mill effluent contaminated soil, drinking water and selected vegetables (Amaranthus viridis, Telfairia occidentialis, Vernonia amygdalina, Ocimum gratssimum, Talinm fruticoscum, and corchorus') grown in palm oil irrigated farmland in Eziisu, Njaba, Imo State Nigeria. Except drinking water every other samples was given preliminary treatment and digested prior to heavy metal analysis. The atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) was calibrated using low to high concentrations of the respective standard salts and was used to determine concentrations of the heavy metal according to the guideline of the manufacturer. The heavy metal determined includes (Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu, Co, Mn, Ni, Fe and Cr). The results ofthe heavy metal concentration in vegetables shows that heavy metal was not detected in most of the vegetable samples, and when present falls far above the set standard limit of USEPA (1997) which is (0.001, 0.003, 0.3, 0.004, 0.02, 0.04 ppm) respectively when detected and is statistically significant. The result of drinking water shows that heavy metal were not detected except for zinc and cobalt were they falls above the set standard limit of (2.00 and 1.00 ppm) which are also statistically significant. In soil, the result shows that the heavy metals determined falls below the set standard limit making it statistically insignificant when detected which suggests that soil around this area is good for farm practice/product. The result of POME shows that heavy metal concentration was detected in all the heavy metals determined except for chromium, copper and cobalt were they were not detected. The levels of heavy metal detected in POME falls above the set standard limit making it statistically significant. Therefore, according to the result which shows POME, vegetable samples and water contains a high toxic level of heavy metal which suggest that people living around this study area are not to consumed them as accumulation of heavy metals in the body system can lead various diseases in extreme cases death as shown in this work.