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Samuel Afful*, Johannes A.M. Awudza, Shiloh Osae, Slyvester K. Twumasi and Andrews Affum receive Nelson Mandela Research Award-2015 in Chemical Science
25 February, 2015, India, USA NEWS CORP
Samuel Afful*, Johannes A.M. Awudza, Shiloh Osae, Slyvester K. Twumasi and Andrews Affum receive Nelson Mandela Research Award-2015 in Chemical Science. Their research findings were published on world's prestigious most read journal: The Journal of Chemical Science. The occurrence, levels and sources of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and indicator polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Weija Lake are presented and levels revealed varying concentrations in the water and the sediments. Liquid-liquid extraction with hexane was used for the extraction of the compounds from the water samples while sediment samples were sonicated on ultrasonic bath with hexane/acetone (3:1) solvent system. The extracts were then cleaned up with florisil and quantified on a micro-capillary gas chromatography equipped with electron capture detector. In all, five indicator PCB congeners namely, PCB # 28, 52, 101, 138, 180 and fifteen OCPs, α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH, δ-HCH, γ-chlordane, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, α-endosulfan, β-HCH, endosulfan sulfate, p,p’-DDT, p,p’-DDE, p,p’-DDD, and methoxychlor were detected. However, the levels of α-HCH, β-HCH, aldrin, dieldrin, γ-chlordane and PCB #118, 153 were below detection limit in the water compartment. In sediments, the mean concentration ranged from 0.15 µgkg -1 dry weight (α-HCH) to 7.08 µgkg -1 dry weight (PCB 52). PCB 28 was detected with the highest concentration of 2.50 µgL -1 in water samples. Data analysis by one way anova indicated significant differences in the levels of most of the organochlorines sampled from the various locations. Generally, the mean levels of the organochlorines in the Weija water and sediments were below quality guideline values. The results, based on one year monitoring, therefore suggest that organochlorine compounds investigated in the present study may not pose health hazard in the waters from Weija Lake. Even though the use of GC-ECD for determination of organochlorine pollutants is well established, the absence of applying other alternative proven techniques for confirmation of OCs identified in the samples could be a limitation. It is author’s recommendation that GC-MS or GC-MS-MS could have served the purpose in confirming the presence of the detected OCs in the samples. This work was supported by National Nuclear Research Institute of Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. Authors express their gratitude to Mr. Paul Fosu of Ghana Standard Authority for the technical assistance and to the technical staff of organic laboratory of Nuclear Chemistry and Environmental Research Centre of Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.
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