Abstract

Comparative determinations of nickel, lead and iron contents in roadside soil samples of Bauchi, Bauchi State, Nigeria was carried out using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric method. The concentrations of nickel, lead and iron investigated ranged from 0.33-0.67, 6.67-28.33 and 7,740.00-14,106.67 mgkg-1 respectively. Soil samples from Bauchi-Gombe road were found to contain the highest concentrations of lead (28.33 mgkg-1) and iron (14,106.67 mgkg-1) respectively, whilst soil samples from Bauchi-Maiduguri road were found to contain highest concentration of nickel (0.67 mgkg-1). The differences in the concentrations of lead and iron in all the road networks investigated were found to be significantly different (p ¡Ü 0.05), whereas the differences in the concentrations of nickel in all the studied road networks were found not to be statistically different (p ¡Ü 0.05) as determined by Single Factor Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The Tukey Pair-wise Difference (p ¡Ü 0.05) further corroborated that significant differences occur in the respective concentrations of lead and iron in all the road networks of Bauchi. The studies further revealed that the highest concentrations of the metals in each case are within the maximum permissible limits set by World Health Organization, which indicates that the soil samples from the road networks have not reached maximum pollution mark and hence, does not presently pose any threat to the inhabitants.

Key words: Nickel, lead, iron, road network, Single Factor Analysis of Variance, Tukey Pair-wise Difference and maximum permissible limits