Analysis of Heavy Metals Composition in Some of the Vegetables from Waste Dump Soils in Selected Urban Areas of Benue State

Vegetables are highly consumed in all the states across Northern Nigeria where they constitute a major source of nutritiousfood. Some of the vegetables that grow fast and successfully are used as source of food by all categories of households. Soilbeing the natural source of for food production is often contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins as result of humanactivities. This study was conducted to determine the presence, concentration and bioaccumulation of selected heavy metalsin some of the varieties of the vegetables grown on soils containing waste dumps. The selected heavy metals were analyzedusing AAS. The levels of the heavy Metals in both vegetables and their soils were generally low with Fe and Co having thehighest and lowest mean values respectively. The values were within the acceptable standards indicating that the vegetableis safe for consumption. Significant differences were observed at P<0.05 between the mean values of Cu and Cr in amaranthsamples and Fe in the soil samples. The Transfer Factor values were generally less than 1.00 except for Cr in samples fromsites Ma and Gb and for Co in samples from site OT. Except for Cr, the TF values obtained did not provide a clear trend onthe movement of the selected heavy metals from soil to the study vegetable samples. Therefore the use of soils from wastedump site for cultivation of vegetables did not impact much on the heavy metal analyzed in the vegetable samples studied.