Spatial Characteristics of Heavy Metal Pollution and Potential Environmental Risk Assessment of Urban Soils around Cemeteries in Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

The study's objective was to ascertain whether burial customs in a working cemetery had an effect on the soil nearby. A total of twenty-four randomly selected sampling points were chosen from the three cemeteries, with eight from each cemetery location. The city center, equidistant from each of the three cemeteries served as the location for the control sample. Using a SKYRAY EDXRF type EDX3600B, the samples were digested, and their elemental composition was analyzed. Risk assessment models, such as the contamination factor and pollution load index were employed to estimate the degree of soil deterioration caused by heavy metal pollution. Nine out of the twenty-seven metals were found to have reasonable levels of concentration from the elemental composition study. In addition, a computed PLI value of less than 1 was employed to validate the result of the contamination factor (CF), and support the findings that the level of metal pollution around the cemeteries is minimal.