Cadmium, copper and nickel levels in vegetables from industrial and residential areas of Lagos City, Nigeria

The levels of cadmium, copper and nickel in five different edible vegetables, Talinum triangulare, Celosia trigyna, Corchorus olitorus, Venomia amygydalina and Telfaria accidentalis, and the soils in which they were grown, from three industrial and three residential areas of Lagos City, Nigeria, were determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The results obtained for these three heavy metals from the industrial areas were higher than those of the residential areas as a result of pollution. Industrial area results for vegetables ranged between 1.13 and 1.67 μg/g for cadmium; 25.08 and 56.84 μg/g for copper and 1.33 and 2.06 μg/g for nickel. There were statistically significant differences (P<0.05) between the levels of copper and nickel in all the vegetables studied from industrial and residential areas, while there was no statistically significant difference for cadmium. The results also show that Corchorus olitorus (bush okra) has the ability to accumulate more copper and nickel than the other vegetable studied but has the least ability to accumulate cadmium.