Level of Concentration of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (Pahs) in Ogegele River
1Akor J. A &Dr. 2Abdulrazaq Yahaya
1Department of Integrated Science, Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa
2Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Kogi State University
ABSTRACT
This present study was conducted to ascertain the potential health risk on the contamination of Ogegeleriver in Kogi State during raining season. This will help to monitor the extent of such contamination brought about by this toxic substances from PAHs. Four sampling sites of about 200 m apart were analyzed and the content of 13 priority PAHs was determined.Polyaromatic hydrocarbon(PAHs) are harmful chemical and are among the nasty classified persistent organic pollutants(POPs) by United Nation Environmental protection(UNEP).They are potential immune suppressant and carcinogenic when contacted in edible substances such as food and water.In this study, water samples were collected in an amber glass bottle,preserved with 5mL of hydrochloric acid(1:1),stored in an ice-chests at 4 prior to analysis.PAHs wre extracted by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) using methylene chloride,subjection to silica gel column clean up and analysed with gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detector (GC-FID).The concentrations in( g/L) of PAHs are as follows:Naphthalene(33.12-130.2),Acenaphthylene(1.91-43.6),chrysene(0.90-31.1),Benz[a]anthracene(1.13-74.4),pyrene(0.83-16.5),Acenaphthene(0.42-12.2),flouranthene(3.10-25.5),Anthracene(1.03-10.3),phenanthrene(0.88-8.80),Benzo[a]pyrene(0.09-4.60),Benzo[k]flouranthene(0.11-4.60),Benzo[b] flouranthene(0.08-4.80),flourene(0.73-12.0),O-Terphenyl(3.40-4.87),indenol[1,2,3-cd] pyrene(0.3-7.13),Dibenz[a,h] anthracene(0.36-0.51),Benzo[g,h,i] perylene(0.17-0.26).The study discovered that the level of concentrations of PAHs were above the Maximum Allowable Concentration of 0.2g/L (ATDRS 2019).Conclusively,the water body was found to be grossly polluted with PAHs.Hence, there is need for proper control of human activities that could lead to such pollution in the river in order to keep the water hygienic for human consumption and aquatic life.
