Assessment of selected major and trace elements in groundwater of Lagos based on land use and implication on human health

Abstract

Sixty-seven (67) groundwater samples from different land use areas such as dumpsites, industrial, markets and residential all within Lagos, southwest Nigeria, were sampled and sent to ACME Laboratories, Ontario, Canada, for geochemical analysis to determine some essential and toxic elements using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer method. The purpose was to establish baseline values for the geochemical composition of groundwater in some parts of Lagos as well as the health risk assessment. Based on essential elements, 83%, 80% and 100% of groundwater samples were deficient in Ca, Mg and Se, respectively, while 75%, 10%, 7% and 8% of samples can be categorised as soft, moderately hard, hard and very hard water, respectively. The soft water, as well as different deficiencies in water, had been linked to heart problems, impeded growth, fertility disorders and liver diseases. Concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Ni and Fe were higher than recommended standards in 2.94%, 1.5%, 1.5%, 29.4%, 4.4% and 4.7% of groundwater samples, respectively. Groundwater in the study area can be classified between not contaminated (< 1) to very highly contaminated (CI > 5) based on the contamination index. Highly contaminated samples were within dumpsites and industrial areas. The land-use activities have a direct or indirect impact on groundwater quality. The apparent sources of groundwater pollutants include industrial discharge, effluents, leachates and municipal wastes. The result of total health risk index for both ingestion and dermal exposure to water showed values far > 1 for all the toxic elements and generally pose non-carcinogenic health risk hazards for child and adult population in the study area. THI for samples from residential, market, industrial and dumpsites showed mean values of (9.60 and 3.75), (14.17 and 5.37), (9.8 and 3.4) and 95.44 and 37.48) for child and adult population, respectively. The degree of contamination in groundwater showed the following trends: dumpsite > industrial > markets > residential in the study area.