Radiological and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometric Analyses of Selected Inorganic Fertilizers in Zaria Kaduna State, Nigeria: Source of Possible Environmental Pollution

Abstract

This work investigated the presence and concentrations of heavy metals and the specific activity concentrations of radionuclides in selected inorganic fertilizers purchased from Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria using X-ray Fluorescence and gamma ray spectrometric techniques. The average concentrations of Cr, Ni, Si, V, and Zn were within the ranges in agricultural soils, except Sambuka fertilizer which recorded 72mg/kg average Cr concentration higher than in agricultural soils. The 40K activity concentration of the fertilizers ranged from 101Bq/kg to 2,481Bq/kg with a mean of 566Bq/kg. The 226Ra activity concentration ranged from 22.99 Bqkg-1 to 34.48Bqkg-1 with a mean of 28.36±1.96 Bqkg-1. 232Th has mean activity concentration of 57.33 ± 0.74Bqkg-1 ranging from 40.71 to 77.10Bqkg-1. The air absorbed dose rate ranged from 53.91 to 144.90nGyh-1 with a mean of 72.31nGy h-1 which is higher than 51nGy/h Benchmark. The annual effective dose rate had an average of 88.37 μSvy-1 ranging from 60.51 to 178.23μSvy-1.The Raeq ranged from 113.06 to 207.69Bqkg-1 with a mean activity concentration of 134.84±3.130Bqkg-1which is far below the 370Bq/kg Benchmark. The Hex and Hin averaged 0.48 and 0.39 with ranges from 0.398 to 0.83 and 0.29 to 0.77 respectively.