Detection of Heavy Metals Concentration Due to Leather Tanning Industry and Prevalent Disease Pattern in Kasur, Pakistan

Abstract

Leather tanning industry is the third largest export earning industry of Pakistan. Kasur is second largest leather producing city in Punjab. It is among Pakistan’s most contaminated cities due to discharge of highly toxic industrial effluent into open fields. This study aims to identify the level of toxicity of the soil in terms of heavy metals in different parts of Kasur city. Seventy (70) soil samples were collected from seven different locations including city centre, evacuated ponds and agriculture fields being fed with the recycled water from the wastewater treatment plant. In this study, the presence of three heavy metals, that is, Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn) and Nickel (Ni) were measured by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The overall mean value of these metals (Cr 3.859 ± 0.510 mg/Kg, Mn 0.5243 ± 0.0691 mg/Kg and Ni 0.4759 ± 0.0318 mg/Kg, respectively) in Kasur was found higher as compared to control samples (Cr 0.2622 ± 0.033 mg/Kg, Mn 0.1701 ± 0.016 mg/Kg and Ni 0.1817 ± 0.021 mg/Kg, respectively). The results reflect that the areas which are in contact with tannery effluents have high levels of Cr, Mn and Ni as compared to other sites and control samples. It was seen that majority of the city population is facing diseases associated with drinking water, soil and air pollution caused by tanning industry.