Impact And Hazards To Health Assessment Of Roadside Soils Near An Open Dump In Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

The scope of heavy metals concentration in roadside soils along Yenagoa - Tombia road near an open dump has been examined, in order to evaluate their impact and hazards to health. Soil samples were collected from four sampling sites.The concentrations of heavy metals in each soil sample were determined using a GBC Avanta PM. Ver 2.02 AAS. The mean concentrations (mg/kg) in soils were: (0.10±0.04) Cd, (0.56±0.06) Cu, (0.82±0.53) Pb and (1.14±0.22) Zn, while the physicochemical parameters were: (6.23 ± 0.10) pH and 0.54±0.14 respectively. In an attempt to assess the impact and hazards to health, comparison with threshold or critical trigger concentrations for the contaminated soils, heavy metal concentrations in soils of various environments and geoaccumulation index was employed. According to geoaccumulation index, the roadside soil samples collected along Yenagoa – Tombia road near an open dump are classified as practically uncontaminated.