Exposure Assessment of Glyphosate in Selected Grains Grown in Gombe State, Nigeria and the Potential Health Risk on Consumption.

Glyphosate widely accepted to be biodegradable and ecofriendly are arguably found to be ambiguous having pinged its footprints in some environmental and health related complications. This herbicide is used widely in Gombe State, Nigeria to mitigate the growth of transgenic plants, and control weeds infestation in farmlands despite being banned in must countries. Thus present a potential risk to the public that still use the formulations as herbicides. Therefore, in this study, we examined the residual level of glyphosate in the rice, beans, maize, millet and sorghum obtained from Gombe, Kaltungo and Funakaye Local Government Areas (LGA) of Gombe State and further conducted the human health risk assessments on consumption. The samples were purified and subjected to extraction and clean-up procedures using water/acetonitile (50/50). The results quantified using Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrophotometer revealed the average concentrations of glyphosate residues in the samples collected from the three LGA to follow the increasing order; 0.03692>0.01501>0.01413 ppm respectively. However, the concentrations were all observed to be lower than the Minimum Residual Limits (MRLs) set by the WHO/FAO. The non-carcinogenic health risk analysis taken from the data, having values of <1, suggest that the residues do not pose any disenable health risk to the public on consumption but further suggest the exposed children and adults populations are at risk of potential carcinogenic-related complications based on the respective measured Life Time Total Cancer Risk Index (TCRI) of 1.81 x 10^-3 and 2.25 x 10^-4. The Correlation coefficient established for the samples locations reveals no significant correlation between the pairs of LGAs. From the foregoing results, effective measures and regulations on the use of glyphosate-based herbicides should be instituted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]