Organochlorine Pesticide Residues in Sediments and Waters from Cocoa Producing Areas of Ondo State, Southwestern Nigeria

Thisstudyinvestigatedlevelsoforganochlorinepesticide(OCP)residuesinwaterandsedimentsamplesfromelevenriversserving as drinking water sources and receiving runoff from nearby cocoa plantations in Ondo State, Nigeria. Twenty-two composite samplesofsurfacewaterandsediments(0–3cm)werecollectedrandomlyusinggrabtechniqueandreplicatedthriceperseason. The efficiency of the two techniques [supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and liquid/liquid extraction (LLE)] was evaluated with percentageanalyterecoveries 98.17 ± 0.03 to 134.72 ± 0.02 forSFEand 84.82 ± 3.32 to1102.83 ± 3.17 forLLE.Determinationof OCPsbygaschromatographywithelectroncapturedetectiongavehigherconcentrationsforsedimentscomparedtotheequivalent water samples. The commonly occurring pesticide residues in the sediments were (range

Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in blood plasma of neurology patients

The etiology of many neurological cases cannot be easily delineated, making the investigation, and treatment to be challenging.This study aimsto screen the blood of neurology patients presenting for the first time in the hospital for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) using Flame Ionization Detector –Gas Chromatography. Fourteen PAHs were detected in the samples. The results showed that flourene and phenanthrene were common to all the patients in the range (1.37to8.08 and 1.66 to8.34 ng/mL respectively), but were not detected in the control samples. Pyrene, fluoranthene and acenaphthene were present in 80, 75 and 70% in the blood plasmaof the patients at the range of 2.96 to236.86 ng/mL, 1.96 to 11.55ng/mL and 1.08 to 1.81 ng/mL respectively. These were not found in the control samples. The body burden of these congeners wasmuch higher in neurology patients than controlsand literature values of similar study. The concentrations detected were statistically significant, and could be possible causative agents. This can also become one of the investigative tools for these disease