DefinePK

Abstract

Spider webs collected from the indoor and outdoor of 120 sampling sites of 10 zones of Kano Municipality were analysed for manganese and iron by the use of Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometery (AAS), after digestion in the mixture of concentrated nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The analysis of the webs showed different levels of the metals in the indoor and outdoor samples with means and standard deviations of 273.33±133.98 and 378.33±159.06 µg/g, for manganese indoor and outdoor respectively, then 3083.33±1314.00 and 4200.00±1656.00µg/g for iron indoor and outdoor respectively. These variations in concentrations have been attributed to emissions from dust particles, motor vehicle/industrial emissions and other activities in the metropolis. Analysis of the webs also showed large differences between the sites which could be attributed to the geology and human activities in each locality. Spider webs analysis has thus proved to be accumulators and therefore useful indicators of pollutants of the environment from which they were collected, hence can be used as natural samplers.