Research article

Determination of heavy metals in some Cigarettes and cannabis sativa available in Nigeria

^*1Umar A, ¹Isa UB, ¹Barau AS, ²Jimoh WLO and ³Mohammad Y

¹Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Kano State Polytechnic, Kano, Nigeria

²Departments of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria

³Nigeria Defense Academy, Kaduna, Nigeria

*Correspondence Author E-mail: aliumar4u@icloud.com

Accepted 17 September 2014

Abstract

The distribution of heavy metals content in cigarette and cannabis were determined using atomic absorption spectrometers (Model Unicam 929). The result showed that the concentration of metals in cannabis are Pb 0.028, Cu 0.0172, Fe 0.0380, Cd 0.0263 and in cigarette samples, the metal concentrations for sample A are Pb 0.0172, Cu 0.0123, Fe 0.0254, Cd 0.0103; For sample B, Pb 0.0132, Cu 0.0132, Fe 0.0263, Cd 0.0151; and sample C, Pb 0.00, Cu 0.0132, Fe 0.0232, Cd 0.0094. The result obtained revealed that metal concentration in cannabis samples exceeded those of cigarette samples. Therefore both cannabis and cigarette are dangerous to health but cannabis seems to be more dangerous to health.

Keywords: cigarette, Cannabis sativa, heavy metals, Nigeria