Abstract

The levels of some heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn, and Fe) were determined. Portions of fresh spinach were randomly handpicked from three different farms. The leaves were cleaned with distilled water, sliced and dried in an oven at 80 0 C. Three grams of each powdered leave sample were weighed out into a kjadhal digestion flask, and the samples were digested using aqua re, diluted with distilled water and filtered. The filtrate was analyzed for the presence of heavy metals (Cd et al. using an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), and the levels of heavy metals in the vegetable samples obtained from samples A, B, and C were determined in ppm. The concentration of Cd was 0.0020, 0.0481 and 0.0127 respectively. Cr was 0.1555, 5.5416 and 13.7827ppm, Fe was 0.3171, 0.4283 and 0.6195, Pb was 0.1496, 0.1683 and 0.1699, Zn was 0.0035, 0.0106 and 0.0137ppm. The concentration levels of some metals were higher than the WHO permissible limit. The result generally showed no significant level of metals (P>0.05) in the vegetable leaves for samples obtained from A, B and C for Zn, Pb, Fe and Cd. However, there was a significant difference (P<0.05) for Cr in samples B and C. Consuming vegetables from these various farms as food may cause health hazards.