Total petroleum hydrocarbons and trace heavy metals in roadside soils along the Lagos-Badagry expressway, Nigeria.

This study reports the level of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and trace heavy metals (lead, copper, and cadmium) in soil samples collected randomly from Iyana-Iba garage, Lagos State University bus stop, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education bus stop, and a control site off Lusada-Atan road, near Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun state. TPH was estimated gravimetrically after Soxhlet extraction and column clean up, while soil metals were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry using mineral acid digestion. For TPH, the sites have mean values of 19.43+/-1.27, 16.11+/-1.85, and 11.43+/-4.33 mg/g with a control mean value of 0.33+/-0.16 mg/g. For trace heavy metals, cadmium was not detected. However, the mean levels of lead are 4.24+/-3.10, 3.72+/-0.60, and 3.70+/-1.32 microg/g, respectively, whereas mean copper concentrations are 20.63+/-9.02, 19.35+/-3.61, and 16.76+/-3.02 microg/g in all sites, respectively, compared to the control mean of 0.25+/-0.13 and 5.99+/-1.23 microg/g for lead and copper, respectively. Sites studied have higher levels of TPH and metals compared to the control soil samples. This is indicated by a statistically significant difference found between the concentration of analyzed elements in soils collected along Lagos-Badagry expressway and the control site.