Predicting Mobility of Cadmium (Cd) and Lead (Pb) in Contaminated Soil through a Mathematical Model

Abstract

Indiscriminate discharge of industrial effluent particularly pharmaceutical effluent on agricultural soils poses serious health risk to plants, animals and ultimately humans. This study was carried out to predict the mobility of two of the most lethal soil pollutants (Cadmium and Lead). As such, the concentrations of Cadmium and Lead in soil at the initial point of effluent disposal and at subsequent points 4m, 8m, 12m, 16m and 20m away from the point source were determined. A simplified version of transport equation was used to simulate the mobility of Cadmium and Lead in the soil using polymath professional version 6.1. The simulated result showed a good level of agreement with the experimental data with correlation coefficients of 0.92 and 0.96 for Pb and 0.89 and 0.97 for Cd mobility respectively. Thus the model can be considered as a good representation of the phenomenon of mobility of heavy metals in the soil.