The continuity for discovery and production of new chemicals, allied products, and uses has currently resulted into generation of recent form of contaminants known as Emerging Contaminants (ECs). Once in the aquatic environment ECs are carcinogenic and cause other threats to both human's and animals' health. Due to their effects this study was aimed at investigating research trends of ECs in Tanzania. Findings revealed that USA and EU countries were leading in ECs researches, little followed by Asia, South Africa, and then Zambia. Only few guidelines from USA-EPA, WHO, Canada, and Australia existed. Neither published guidelines nor regulations for ECs existed in Tanzania; rather only the occurrence of some disinfection by-products and antibiotics was, respectively, reported in Arusha and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. As these reports had a limited coverage of ECs, henceforth, these findings constitute the first-line reference materials for ECs research in Tanzania which shall be useful for future monitoring and regulation planning.
Lead is among the most toxic elements in nature. It is non-biodegradable and its toxicity does not change with time. Use of leaded gasoline in motor vehicles is known as the major source of lead pollution in cities in the world. Dar es Salaam, the main city of Tanzania, has thousands of cars traveling along its roads. The lead contaminating urban roadside environments of Dar es Salaam was determined. Soil and vegetation samples were collected at various distances from the road edges of the New Bagamoyo, Sam Nujoma and Mandela roads in Dar es Salaam and analyzed for lead using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric methods. The results show that the soils and grasses along these major highways of Dar es Salaam were contaminated with lead. The highest lead contents (152.5 ppm in soil and 35.7 ppm in couch grass) were found in soils and vegetation within 1 to 5 meters from the road edge. The background lead levels measured at 150 meters from the road side were less than 1.2 ppm in both soil and vegetation. The lead levels along these roads exhibited strong correlation with the average traffic density (r = 0.912 for soil and r = 0.88 for grass). The levels of lead decreased exponentially with increasing distance away from the road. This suggests the major source of lead contamination of these areas was emissions from automobile traffic on these highways. The high levels of lead at 0 -10 m from the roadside edge also suggest that soil and vegetation close to the roadside were a potential health hazard to both humans and animals.
Urban agriculture is becoming an important lucrative activity in Dar es Salaam City even though the city is subject to traffic and industrial pollution pressures. Poor planning has left only limited spaces, particularly road reserves, for cultivation and foraging animals. While there is increasing road traffic no study bas been conducted determine levels of trace metals in pasture grasses. This study, therefore, reports on the levels of cadmium, manganese, lead and zinc of cynodon grasses in road
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