Ecological Risk Assessment of Mineral and Heavy Metals Levels of Soil Around Auto Mechanic Village Wukari, Nigeria

Environmental contamination is one of the serious challenge facing humanity and other life forms on our planet today. contamination occurs when contaminating substances exceeds their natural levels or when natural resources are use at a rate higher than nature's capacity to restore itself. This study determines the levels of mineral element and potential toxic metals namely: P, K, Mg, Mn, Si, Fe, Zn, Cd, Pb and Al in agricultural soil around mechanic village Wukari-Nigeria. by means of MP-AES (4210 MP-AES Agilent technologies) while their pollution indices by means of geo-accumulation index and contamination factor. The results reveals that the mean ± standard deviation abundance of mineral and heavy metals in the soil was: Fe (20723.64±153.71), Al (3753.80±30.54) K (368.13±2.17), Mg (298.05±3.88), Mn (231.97±0.74), P (221.22±5.47), Zn (184.83±0.47), Pb (86.29±0.31), Si (64.27±0.43) and Cd (1.33±0.06). There was generally a significant difference between the concentration in the test and control sample (P < 0.05). While pollution indices show moderate to very high contamination of the soil by zinc, lead and cadmium signalling higher potential risk in terms of mobility on acidification since the organic content is moderate and soil texture being sandy-loam usually characterise with moderate capacity to immobilize heavy metals. Lead contamination can result in neurological and hematological dysfunctions, renal and hepatic damages as well as reproductive disorders in the humans while cadmium is known to have effect on kidney.