Abstract

Atrazine is a herbicide widely used in agriculture, leading to environmental contamination and severe potential health risks such as endocrine disruption, toxicity and carcinogenic effects. This study aimed to detect and quantify atrazine in Gombe farmland soils thereby uncovering the level of atrazine contamination in the study area. Triplicate agricultural soil samples were collected from five different farmlands and three non-agricultural control soils. Spectrophotometric detection of atrazine was optimized, and this enabled the construction of a standard calibration curve using varied atrazine standards for extrapolative determination of atrazine loading from different farmland soils. All the agricultural soils depicted significantly higher atrazine contamination levels, with agricultural site 4 producing the highest atrazine herbicide concentration of 0.66 g/kg, while the lowest concentration of 0.49 g/kg was detected in site 1. The detected atrazine levels were higher than the various regulatory limits, suggesting seriously higher contamination arising from the herbicide accumulation in the agricultural soils due to the intensive and ceaseless herbicide application. There was no detectable atrazine in all the non-agricultural control soils which showed no significant relevance. Findings vitally provide a regional baseline data on atrazine contamination in Gombe agricultural soils. Also, underscore the need for an urgent atrazine remediation strategy, regulatory interventions and alternative herbicide management to minimise the health consequences of atrazine contamination in the study area.

Key words: Soil, Atrazine, farmland, agricultural soil, Spectrophotometry.