Chemometric analysis of ecological toxicants in petrochemical and industrial environments.

The application of chemometrics in the assessment of toxicants, such as heavy metals (HMs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) potentially derived from petrochemical activities in the microenvironment, is vital in providing safeguards for human health of children and adults residing around petrochemical industrial regions. Several multivariate statistical methods are used in geosciences and environmental protection studies to classify, identify and group prevalent pollutants with regard to exhibited trends. Chemometrics can be applied for toxicant source identification, estimation of contaminants contributions to the toxicity of sites of interest, the assessment of the integral risk index of an area and provision of mitigating measures that limit or eliminate the contaminants identified.

Potential risk effect from elevated levels of soil heavy metals on human health in the Niger delta.

An analysis of the soil quality in the Niger Delta Area (NDA) was carried out to determine the severity of soil contamination. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) risk assessment model was used in determining the potential health risk due to lifetime exposure (by means of ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation) of the population to heavy metal contents in the soil. Substantial levels of contamination were found indicating elevated levels of heavy metals above background concentrations from controlled samples in the areas.