RESEARCH ARTICLE COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF METAL (Pb, Cr, Hg, As AND Al) UPTAKE BY LEAFY VEGETABLES AND FRUIT GROWN IN GARDENS AROUND THE KING TOM REFUSE DUMP IN FREETOWN * Foday Thullah, Anthony J. Kamara and Morlai Kamara Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone (USL), Freetown, Sierra Leone ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT The King Tom refuse dump site is a repository of different kinds of wastes such as biodegradable waste, recyclable materials, electrical and electronic waste, hazardous waste, toxic waste and inert waste. Most substances in these wastes invariably contain heavy metals. The areas around the refuse dump have long been utilized for vegetable gardening by poor residents in the King Tom community. This study was aimed at assessing levels of toxic heavy metals (Pb, Cr, Hg, As and Al) in selected vegetables and fruit grown in the gardens around the King Tom dump site to ascertain bioaccumulation and possible HM toxicity. Two sampling sites were chosen for this research; gardens in the King Tom dumpsite in the west end and controlled site (Congo Water) in the East end of Freetown. Two commonly consumed leafy vegetables in Freetown, Manihot utilisimma (Cassava leaves), Ipomea batatas (Potato leaves) and fruit Solanu m melongena (Garden egg) were chosen for research. After sample preparation, the level of heavy metals in the soil and plant samples was determined spectrophotometrically, using Spectrophotometer model (Niton XL3t GOLDD+handheld X-ray fluorescence). Results indicate that metal levels in dump site soil are far higher than those in controlled site soil and that Al recorded highest level followed by Pb, Cr and As for dump site soil. Hg was not detected in both sample sites investigated. In the leafy vegetables and fruit, the metal levels were found to be in the following order; Al>Cr>Pb>As. The order of bioaccumulation of the metals in the leafy vegetables and fruit is; Pb:Solanum melongena (Garden egg)>Ipomea batatas (Potato leaves)>Manihot utilisimma (Cassava leaves); Cr:Ipomea batatas (Potato root)>Manihot utilisimma (Cassava leaves)>Solanum melongena (Garden egg);Al :Ipomea batatas (Potato root)>Ipomea batatas (Potato leaves) Manihot utilisimma (Cassava leaves)>Solanum melongena (Garden egg); As :Ipomea batatas (Potato leaves)>Ipomea batatas (Potato root)>Solanum melongena (Garden egg)for both sample sites investigated. The Product moment correlation coefficients between soil and cassava leaves (rsc), between soil and potato leaves (rsp), and between soil and garden eggs (rsg)were calculated to giversc= 0.994, rsp= 0.992 and rsg= 0.997; indicating very strong relationships between the soil and plant parts. This implies that the dumpsite soil is the most likely source of the extra metal concentrated in the plant parts. Copyright © 2019, Foday Thullah et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. INTRODUCTION The influx of people migrating from rural areas to cities in African countries, has led to an astronomical increase in size and population of cities. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 35% of the population lives in urban areas, and urban population grew by 150 % between 1970 and 1990(www.encapafrica.org., 2009). In Serra Leone migrants arriving in the cities from other areas of the country are mostly unskilled and have poor educational background. They mainly engage in various economic activities such as sand and stone mining, petty- trading, bike riding and urban vegetable farming for their livelihood. For those pursuing the vegetable growing option access to land and water in the cities is a major challenge. Thus Landfills and/or open refuse dumps and areas around them have become very attractive places to vegetable growers. Land fills and/or open refuse dumps have been common municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal practices all over the world (Nagendran et. al., 2006) and Sierra Leone is yet to properly design and operate sanitary land fills in and around urban towns. Refuse dumps in cities in Sierra Leone usually hold all kinds of solid wastes including: biodegradablewaste, recyclable materials, inert waste, electrical and electronic waste, hazardous waste and toxic waste. This mixture of solid wastes in refuse dumps is a reservoir of hazardous substances that can increase the health risks emanating from the leachate and gases (Erses et al., 2005). MSW can bleed toxic materials and pathogenic organisms into dumps and landfill leachate contaminating ground or surface water, depending on the drainage system and the composition of the underlying soils (www.encapafrica.org., 2009). Land fill leachate is one of the main sources of groundwater and surface water pollution ISSN: 0976-3376 Asian Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 10, Issue, 06, pp.9751-9755, June, 2019 Available Online at http://www.journalajst.com ASIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Article History: Received 27 th March, 2019 Received in revised form 06 th April, 2019 Accepted 19 th May, 2019 Published online 28 th June, 2019 Key words: Bioaccumulate, dumpsite, Hazardous, leaching, toxic metals, X-ray fluorescence. *Corresponding author: Foday Thullah Citation: Foday Thullah, Anthony J. Kamara and Morlai Kamara, 2019. “Comparative studies of metal (Pb, Cr, Hg, As and Al) uptake by leafy vegetables and fruit grown in gardens around the king tom refuse dump in freetown”, Asian Journal of Science and Technology, 09, (6), 9751-9755.