LEAD CONTAMINATION OF TOPSOIL AND VEGETATION IN THE VICINITY OF A BATTERY FACTORY IN NIGERIA P.C. ONIANWA ∗ and S.O. FAKAYODE Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Nigeria ( ∗ author for correspondence, e-mail: ponianwa@mail.skannet.com) Received 1 November 1999; accepted in revised form 21 June 2000 Abstract. Levels of Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni and Cd were determined in topsoil and vegetation in the vicinity of a factory manufacturing lead- batteries in Ibadan, Nigeria. The samples were collected along five transects in different directions, and varying distances up to 1000 m from the factory. Soil lead levels were found to be elevated around the factory, with average levels of about 2000 mgkg −1 close to the fence that declined gradually to about 50 mg kg −1 some 750 m away. Soil-lead level around a primary school located about 500 m from the factory was as high as 1450 mg kg −1 . Lead levels were equally elevated in the vegetation, though average levels in vegetation were slightly lower than in the soil. Cadmium concentrations in soil and vegetation, though low, were more positively correlated with lead levels than any of the other metals are with lead. Key words: battery, lead contamination, Nigeria, plants, soils 1. Introduction The association of soil lead levels with blood lead levels has received considerable attention in recent times in the developed countries (Schmitt et al., 1979; Mielke et al., 1983; Aschenrau et al., 1994; Lanphear et al., 1998), thus making the monit- oring of soil lead levels of significant environmental health interest. In many cases, the source of elevated lead levels in soils and other components of the ecosystem has been traced to contamination from industrial smelters and lead mines (Carvalho et al., 1989; Skinner and Salin, 1995; Brandvold et al., 1996; Gopal et al., 1995; Farago et al., 1999; Rieuwerts et al., 1999). The magnitude of contamination has been found in some cases to be such as to require emergency remediation measures (USEPA, 1989; Harnett et al., 1992). Despite the growing rate of industrialisation in many of the less-developed third world countries only little or no attention is paid to such environmental issues. This is evident in the non-availability of adequate monitoring data of sites which are liable to contamination, and poor land-use planning as a result of which pollut- ing industries are sometimes sited too close to residential areas. There is also the lack of the will and machinery to enforce environmental regulations where these exist. The paper investigates the extent of contamination of the vicinity of a lead- battery manufacturing plant, the West African Batteries Ltd., located in Ibadan, Environmental Geochemistry and Health 22: 211–218, 2000. © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.