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Heavy Metal Index

Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination and Health Risks from Urban-Grown Vegetables in Kano State, Nigeria

Source

Emmanuel measured Cd, Ni, Pb, Mn, and total Cr in vegetables grown around Wudil, Nomans-Land, and Sharada in Kano State, Nigeria.

Page snapshot
Cited by20 pages
Metals measured5
Evidence tierA
Year2025

Overview

Emmanuel measured Cd, Ni, Pb, Mn, and total Cr in vegetables grown around Wudil, Nomans-Land, and Sharada in Kano State, Nigeria. Table 1 gives crop-by-site concentrations for pepper, lettuce, carrot, onion, beetroot, and spinach. Cadmium is the clearest occurrence concern in the table, reaching 0.36 mg/kg in Wudil carrot, while chromium reaches 0.42 mg/kg in Nomans-Land spinach and 0.41 mg/kg in Sharada onion.

Key numbers

All concentrations are source-reported mg/kg in the edible vegetable matrix.

SiteVegetableCdNiPbMnCr
WudilPepper0.190.040.064.870.13
WudilLettuce0.270.060.029.280.10
WudilCarrot0.360.030.120.970.12
WudilOnion0.330.020.080.670.14
Nomans-LandBeetroot0.220.030.100.780.10
Nomans-LandPepper0.250.030.100.790.10
Nomans-LandSpinach0.310.030.131.720.42
SharadaOnion0.23-0.010.150.820.41
SharadaLettuce0.28-0.010.150.820.40

Table 2 reports an overall vegetable mean +/- SD of Cd 0.21 +/- 0.02 mg/kg, Ni 0.02 +/- 0.03 mg/kg, Pb 0.10 +/- 0.05 mg/kg, Mn 2.16 +/- 2.4 mg/kg, and Cr 0.21 +/- 0.17 mg/kg. The corresponding soil mean +/- SD values were Cd 0.29 +/- 0.70 mg/kg, Ni -0.15 +/- 0.04 mg/kg, Pb 1.41 +/- 1.58 mg/kg, Mn 6.12 +/- 4.001 mg/kg, and Cr 0.57 +/- 0.30 mg/kg.

The source also calculates estimated daily intake. Examples include Wudil carrot Cd 2.07E-03, Wudil lettuce Mn 5.33E-02, Sharada onion Cr 2.31E-03, and Nomans-Land spinach Cr 2.42E-03 in the paper’s EDI units.

Methods (brief)

Samples were collected during the January-March 2025 dry season from Wudil, Nomans-Land, and Sharada, representing peri-urban, residential, and industrial urban-agriculture settings. The study reports 64 total samples from eight sites, including soil and edible vegetable portions. Vegetable samples were prepared from edible tissue, digested using microwave-assisted acid digestion, and analyzed by microwave plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. Statistical comparisons used ANOVA and Pearson correlation.

Implications

  • Certification: Adds Nigeria-market occurrence data for Cd, Pb, total Cr, Ni, and Mn across several raw vegetable matrices. This is not a US-market benchmark pool source unless a cross-market rationale is documented.
  • Courses: Useful for showing how urban agriculture, soil contamination, and crop type create different heavy-metal patterns across vegetables.
  • App: Supports both crop-specific pages and broad vegetable category pages with table-level occurrence values.

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Verification notes

  • Chromium is total Cr, not Cr(VI).
  • The source table records negative Ni values for Sharada onion and lettuce. These are preserved as source-reported analytical outputs and should not be interpreted as true negative concentrations.
  • The abstract states that Sharada had Pb of 0.82 mg/kg, but Table 1 reports Pb 0.15 mg/kg and Mn 0.82 mg/kg for Sharada onion and lettuce. This page follows Table 1 and records the abstract/table discrepancy.

Update history

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