Abstract

Lagos is a highly urbanized coastal city, with several water channels linking the Lagos lagoon, a major source of seafoods to the people of Lagos and its environs. Contamination of Lagos soil with persistent bioaccumulative and toxic organic micropullutants (PBTs) would not only affect the non-target species residing in the soil, but also a concern that the chemicals could find their way into the lagoon via soil run-off and leaching. Soil samples were collected from three busy areas of Lagos and analyzed for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCS), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Gas chromatography with mass selective detector (GC/MSD) was used for the analyses. Iddo had the highest percent (%) organic carbon content of 39.39% with highest total PAHs of 2,706.93 ng/g. The highest total PCBs of 23.63 ng/g was found in Apapa. PCB 74 was the only PCB found in all the soils and ranged between 3.55 and 23.64 ng/g at two locations in Apapa. PBTs found in highest concentrations were naphthalene (1,625.10 ng/g) at Iddo, p,p’DDE (117.98 ng/g) at Okobaba, and PCB 74 (23.63 ng/g) at Apapa 1. The levels of PBTs in Lagos soils are hereby presented.

Key words: Soil, (PBTs), (GC/MSD), organic carbon, Lagos.