Nsikak U. Benson

Topfaith University · Chemical Sciences

New indices – modified hazard quotient (m HQ) and ecological contamination index (ECI) – were developed for the evaluation of heavy metals contamination of sediment. Sequential extraction method was employed to determine the levels of cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and lead (Pb) in subtidal sediment samples from tropical eco...

The tropical Atlantic is home to multiple coupled climate variations covering a wide range of timescales and impacting societally relevant phenomena such as continental rainfall, Atlantic hurricane activity, oceanic biological productivity, and atmospheric circulation in the equatorial Pacific. The tropical Atlantic also connects the southern and n...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediment cores of the microtidal coastline of Lagos lagoon were investigated for the occurrence, sources and depositional contamination history. Sediment core samples were collected using the Wildco @ hand corer (50 cm) SS kit and extracted using a 40 mL mixture of hexa...

The aquaculture industry is growing rapidly and plays a huge role in bridging the global demand gap for fish and other aquatic foods. It is a vital contributor of valuable nutrients and economic benefits. Aquaculture and fisheries provide a means of livelihood to an estimated 58.5 million people globally, according to the United Nations Food and Ag...

This study was conducted in Ekpoma, a town dependent on rainwater and river water from nearby areas because of a lack of groundwater sources, and the physicochemical and bacteriological (heterotrophic plate count [HPC], total coliform count [TCC], and fecal coliform count [FCC]) properties of 123 stored river water samples grouped into five collect...

Microplastics (MPs) are receiving a reputation for being carriers of organic compounds in the environment. On the list of these organic compounds are antibiotics, major culprits include amoxicillin, tetracycline, sulfadiazine, ciprofloxacin and trimethoprim, these antibiotics have shown varying binding capacity in different environmental conditions...

Sediment quality and the integrity of coastal aquatic ecosystems are deteriorating, particularly in regions with unregulated discharges of chemical pollutants into the environment. Although organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been banned in recent decades for their adverse effects on the environment and human...

The global rise in plastic demand and production, combined with the significant amount of plastics found in municipal solid waste, has led to the ubiquitous occurrence of microplastics (MPs) in the aquatic environment. This review examines the existing information on the origin, behaviour, fate, and effects of MPs on living organisms and the enviro...

Metagenomics is the study of genetic information, including the sequences and genomes of microorganisms present in an environment. Since 1998, the full-scale application of this technique to environmental chemistry has brought significant advances in the characterization of the nature and chemical composition/ distribution of contaminants present i...

With looming global water-related issues, the monitoring of water quality for household and industrial consumption has become more pertinent. Rivers in nearby towns serve as primary water sources for Ekpoma town. 123 samples of stored river water were collected from 41 sampling locations and physical properties – pH, electrical conductivity (EC), s...

Environmental pollutants such as microplastics and nanoplastics are becoming the most serious global environmental issue, and have been a concern of scientists, governments, and the public. They originate from plastic products and lead to dramatic environmental contamination in freshwater, ocean, land, and air. In recent years, many researchers hav...

Serratia marcescens strain UCCM 00009 produced a mixture of gelatinase and keratinase to facilitate feather degradation but concomitant production of prodigiosin could make waste feather valorization biotechnologically more attractive. This article describes prodigiosin fermentation through co-valorization of waste feather and waste frying peanut o...

This study examines the case of Ekpoma community, Edo State, Nigeria, where roof-harvested rainwater is the primary source of water for drinking and domestic purposes. Eight potentially toxic elements (PTEs), namely aluminum, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, lead, and zinc, were detected in rainwater samples, collected and analyzed from 5...

The ubiquity of microplastics in coastal environments and marine ecosystems is a significant concern because they have a strong affinity for organic contaminants. This paper presents the first reported data on hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) and microplastics particles (MPs, 1 - 5 mm) in lagoon and beach sediments along the Gulf of Guinea c...

Microplastics (MPs) are emerging pollutants of global concern due to their pervasiveness, sorptive capacity for organic and inorganic pollutants, and direct and indirect toxicity to organisms and ecosystems. This study aimed to assess the concentration and the statistical difference in the concentration of microplastic-sorbed organic pollutants fro...

Plastic pollution is a fast-rising environmental catastrophe. Microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) are ubiquitous components of most aquatic environments, and their burgeoning prevalence is endangering aquatic organisms. Recent studies have documented the entanglement of marine and freshwater biota by plastic litters, particularly ghost fishing ge...

Coastal regions are one of the essential spots on the earth as they are hosts to various important ecosystems, natural resources and the increasing population. Based on their proximity to the seas, they are mainly affected by sea-level rise, which is one of the adverse effects of climate change. This has resulted in associated hazards, such as beac...

Municipal landfill leachates are a source of toxic heavy metals that have been shown to have a detrimental effect on human health and the environment. This study aimed to assess heavy metal contamination in leachates, surface water, and sediments from non-sanitary landfills in Uyo, Nigeria, and to identify potential health and environmental effects...

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented form of plastic pollution: personal protective equipment (PPE). Numerous studies have reported the occurrence of PPE in the marine environment. However, their degradation in the environment and consequences are poorly understood. Studies have reported that face masks, the most abundant...

A growing number of the world’s population now live along the coastline, thereby increasing the pressures and risks that coastal systems face, posing a significant threat to both lives and properties, as any hazard in these regions could lead to both biophysical and socioeconomic losses. The combined stresses of population expansion and other facto...

The pervasive existence of microplastics (MPs) and toxic metals is raising environmental and health concerns. Plastics are essentially a complex mixture of chemicals, but exposure to the aquatic environment increases their complexity through contaminant desorption/sorption. The aim of this study was to establish baseline data on the elemental occur...

This article describes the initial study on the simultaneous determination of multiclass antibiotic residues in imported and local frozen poultry specimens, including turkey gizzard and muscle tissues, and chicken muscle tissues, commonly consumed in Ogun State, Nigeria. Minced tissues were treated with phosphate buffer adjusted to pH 7 that was cl...

This paper presents data on the bioactive phytoconstituents in Azadirachta indica, Canna indica, Magnifera indica, and Moringa oleifera analyzed using quantitative and qualitative phytochemical screening methods, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Extracts were prepared in water, ethanol (EtOH)...

This study investigated the characterization of Nigerian crude oil using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and the efficiency of alkaline activated sodium persulphate in degrading petroleum hydrocarbons in crude oil-polluted water. Hydrocarbons (aliphatics and aromatics), non-hydrocarbons, and other constituents were characterized in cru...

ABSTRACT. Microplastics (MPs) are pervasive pollutants in marine environments and might pose a significant danger to aquatic organisms. In this study, sediment samples were collected using a quadrat of 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.2 m at four (4) designated seashores along the Atlantic Ocean, Nigeria, from the high, drift, and current waterlines. The MPs (1-5 mm)...

ABSTRACT. Microplastics (MPs) are particles of plastics that have at least one dimension less than 5 mm. Recently, the impacts of microplastics on aquatic organisms are the focus of many studies. This study aimed to evaluate the ecotoxicological impact of microplastic sorbed-phthalates on aquatic species, with a specific focus on the three sensitiv...

ABSTRACT. Microplastics are well-known vectors of hydrophilic toxic substances, such as pharmaceuticals, and there are increasing concerns about their negative impacts on aquatic organisms, the environment and human health. Due to their widespread consumption, pharmaceuticals are ubiquitous and can readily adsorb onto microplastic surfaces. Antibio...

Increased concerns about human population exposure to increased ionizing radiations emanating from anthropogenic sources of radiation, as well as the associated environmental risk, have necessitated radioactivity baseline studies in many regions. This work based on standard procedures designed suite nuclear power plant (NPP) radiological monitoring...

Biogenic iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized from a locally sourced, readily available plant — Azadirachta indica, were used synergistically with sodium persulphate (PS) to degrade total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in contaminated soil. A chemometric approach to optimizing the conditions for the degradation of TPH was developed using central com...

Microplastics, which serve as sources and vector transport of organic contaminants in both terrestrial and marine environments, are emerging micropollutants of increasing concerns due to their potential harmful impacts on the environment, biota and human health. Microplastic particles have a higher affinity for hydrophobic organic contaminants due...

Coastal and marine ecosystems have been threatened at local and global scales by multiple stressors – sea-level rise, rising temperatures, climate extreme events, biodiversity loss and habitat destruction. These stressors operating independently or synergistically could alter the ecosystem services while posing a significant threat to the environme...

One of the challenges of climate change in most coastal regions of the world is sea-level rise. This is of serious consequence as the coastal zone plays host to a large human population, abundant natural resources, and several ecosystem services. To alleviate the effect of climate change, proper planning of the coastal area is necessary to enhance...

Microplastics are pervasive contaminants that have attracted the attention of researchers over the last decades. Studies have detected and investigated different sizes of microplastics in the environment. However, the methods used for sample collection and quantification of microplastics for similar environmental matrices differ, based on the resou...

The threat of plastic waste pollution in African countries is increasing exponentially since the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus infection as a pandemic. Fundamental to this growing threat are multiple factors, including the increased public consumption for single-use plastics, limited or non-existence of adequate plastic waste m...

Plastic products have played significant roles in protecting people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread use of protective gear created a massive disruption both in the supply chain and waste disposal system. Millions of discarded single-use plastics (masks, gloves, aprons, and bottles of sanitizers) have been added to the terrestrial envir...

Over the past years, to achieve better sensing performance, hafnium dioxide (HfO2) has been studied as an ion-sensitive layer. In this work, thin layers of hafnium dioxide (HfO2) were used as pH-sensitive membranes and were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) process onto an electrolytic-insulating-semiconductor structure Al/Si/SiO2/HfO2 for...

This article presents data on the occurrence and distribution of phthalate esters and metals associated with microplastics (MPs) (1-5 mm) collected from four beaches in the coastal Atlantic ecosystem, Nigeria, Gulf of Guinea. Information on microplastics extraction by density flotation with saturated NaCl and polymer identification with attenuated...

Scientific evidences abound of the occurrence of plastic pollution, from mega- to nano-sized plastics, in virtually all matrixes of the environment. Apart from the direct effects of plastics and microplastics pollution such as entanglement, inflammation of cells and gut blockage due to ingestion, plastics are also able to act as vectors of various...

This paper reports on the determination and distribution of antibiotic drugs in poultry feeds mainly the layers and growers mash obtained from Ogun state in Nigeria. Pulverized feed samples were initially treated with phosphate buffer adjusted to pH 7 and the analytes extracted in an SPE cartridge with ammonium hydroxide and methanol. The extract r...

Several studies have been carried out to measure the concentrations of dimethylsulphide (DMS) and dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) in coastal and open marine ecosystems. The present study attempted the fabrication of a cost-effective, highly sensitive and portable detection system based on vapour generation and chemiluminescence for a pilot asses...

The present study investigated the degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in crude oil polluted water using sodium persulphate as a chemical oxidant. Laboratory-scale contaminations of water and degradation experiments using 0.1 M oxidant were carried out with contact time ranging from 1 to 15 days. The TPH extraction was carried out and...

This article presents information on high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) method for the simultaneous determination of six antibiotic residues (enrofloxacin, sulfadimethoxine, sulfamerazine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfamoxole, and tylosin) in three poultry tissues. The target antibiotic residues were extracted fro...

Importation of poultry produce into Nigeria through its land borders has heightened, notwithstanding the government’s ban on such products. This study examined imported frozen poultry products for antibiotic residues considering their health implications. A solid-phase extraction method using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in the po...

Radioactivity in the environment from sources of natural and human activities resulting in planned, emergency and existing exposure to human population, environment and other biota has led to growing apprehensions in Nigeria and the world. The existing exposure situations mainly from natural radionuclides, present in the earth crust from creation e...

Global warming and changes in precipitation patterns are among the major effects of climate change. In this study, the long-term variability in ambient surface temperature and precipitation were evaluated in the north central region of Nigeria (Abuja, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, and Plateau) using meteorological observations obtained from 1975 to 2008. Dai...

PDF 60 Total downloads Turn on MathJax Share this article Share this content via email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Mendeley Article information Abstract Over the years, the quality of outdoor air has received more attention than indoor air quality because people generally assume that only ambient air is polluted. S...

Seventy-five poultry feed samples of two feed types were analysed for antibiotic drugs using a simple generic solid phase extraction procedure with dichloromethane-acetonitrile after delipidation with n-hexane. Analytical separation was performed on a Waters Acquity C18 column with gradient elution consisting of water and acetonitrile. Liquid chrom...

Dimethylsulphide (DMS) is an important climatically reactive trace gas which is emitted from the seawater to the atmosphere. It undergoes various oxidative reactions to produce cloud condensation nuclei, which affect the earth radiation budget. DMS and its precursor dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) were measured using a modified vapour generation...

Within the framework of determining capping and stabilizing bioactive components present in Canna indica towards nanoparticles synthesis, phytochemical screening, total phenolic content, infrared spectroscopy and chromatographic characterisation were carried out on the locally sourced plant. Extracts were prepared from C. indica leaves using ethano...

Floating plastic samples were handpicked at three (3) different locations along the lagoon coastline. The locations were georeferenced using a Garmin handheld GPS device. The coordinates of the locations are N06o26’24.6” E003o24’13.4”, N06o25’13.8” E003o24’26.3” and N06o25’14.9” E003o24’26.4”. The samples were wrapped in aluminium foil and Ziploc b...

Sorption experiments were carried out to study the interaction of selected PAHs with pristine microplastics. The influence of contaminant concentration and the duration of plastics exposure to contamination on sorption behaviour was investigated.

Quantification of PM2.5 (particulate matter <2.5 µm) bound heavy metals and their potential health risks were carried out around a cement manufacturing company in Ewekoro, Nigeria. The PM2.5 samples were collected using Environtech gravimetric sampler. A four-staged sequential extraction procedure was used to fractionate PM2.5 bound chromium (Cr),...

Here we present data on potentially toxic metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in commercially sold tea brands in Nigeria. The article provides data on the sequential extraction and the pseudo-total concentrations of eight metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in dry Camellia sinensis an...

Background. Trace metals from anthropogenic activities have been found to occur in tea brands and pose potential human health risks to consumers. Objectives. The present study assessed the concentrations of trace metals in green, black and herbal tea brands using a modified Community Bureau of Reference sequential extraction method. Methods. Fiftee...

The dataset for this article contains phytochemical and FTIR data for three different extracts from two indigenous medicinal plants obtained from Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria and the GC–MS characterisation data for their ethanolic extracts. To obtain this data, the leaves of Azadirachta indica and Cymbopogon citratus were collected from the premis...

Heavy metals contamination in aquatic ecosystems has been a major concern, however, no information is available about the concentrations, depth distributions and ecological risks of heavy metals in sediments cores from microtidal lagoonal ecosystem in Lagos, Nigeria. Four sediment cores were collected using a 50 cm × 3.5 cm Wildco® hand corer. Elem...

This paper presents the assimilation of heavy metal concentration data from sequential extraction method (SEM) with metal toxicity factors to develop and propose two new sediment quality indices modified hazard quotient (mHQ) and ecological contamination index (ECI), to predict the potential ecological risks associated with sediment contamination....

Copper nanoparticles were biosynthesized using aqueous plant leaf extract of Alchornea laxiflora as reducing and capping agents. The as synthesized copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) were confirmed by the colour change after addition of the aqueous leaf extract of Alchornea laxiflora into copper sulphate solution. The CuNPs were characterized by UV–Visib...

This study describes the analysis of 16 + 1 US-EPA Priority PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) occurrence in twenty-three (23) imported and locally manufactured samples of green, black and herbal tea commercially marketed and widely consumed in Nigeria. A gas chromatograph (GC) coupled with an auto-sampler in tandem with a flame ionisation det...