Determination of Some Heavy Metals Concentration in Selected Detergents Used in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

There are large amounts of detergent discharged to the environment and subsequently release many organic pollutants and heavy metals. In this Study, twenty detergent samples from three different places were analyzed for Nickel (Ni), lead (Pd) Chromium (Cr) and cadmium (Cd) using Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer. The overall mean concentrations of Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb in all samples were 3.42, 3.13, 4.67 and 1.35 mg/kg. Ni has the highest concentration in all the detergents while Lead has the least concentration and are in the range of Ni > Cr > Cd> Pb. The result showed no significant difference in the Cr, Cd, Ni and Pb between powdered, solid and liquid detergents (p>0.05). The high concentration of the heavy metals in the detergents shows that people using the detergents regularly are at risk which over time may accumulate and cause certain health effects to the consumers.