Determination of Metals Content of Alcohol and Non-alcoholic Canned Drinks Consumed at Idiroko Border Town Ogun State Nigeria

Aims: The study was carried at the Idiroko Border Town in Ogun Southwestern Nigeria, a popular border known for movement of goods and service, an international border town a gateway for many ECOWAS countries is chosen known for movement of smuggled goods and services. The study was aimed at the proliferation of canned alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks and their qualities were determined for public health concern. Therefore, a total of 28 canned alcoholic (Harp, 33, Star, Gulder, Guinness, Heinken, Turbo, Smirnoff and Red Bull) and 31 canned non-alcoholic (Farouz, Snappes, Cocacola, Sprite, Amstel Malta, Fanta, Malta Guinness and Maltina) samples were collected from Idiroko border area of Ogun State, Nigeria to determine levels of essential and toxic metals detected in these consumed products.

Methods: The numbers of samples as shown in the methodology were prepared with standard wet digestion procedure, while the metals were analysed using the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (Buck 210) techniques and the results were then compared with WHO standards.

Results: The metal concentrations ranges from 0-3.25 mg/l, 20.08-133.20 mg/l, 0.97-2.45 mg/l, 0-0.44 mg/l, 0-0.26 mg/l, 0-0.30 mg/l, 0-0.14 mg/l, 0.11-7.38 mg/l, 0-0.02 mg/l for Cu, Mg, Fe, Pb, Cd, Ni, As, Zn, and Cr respectively. High concentration of toxic metals such as Pb, Cd, and Ni above WHO recommended limit were recorded from some non alcoholic samples but all the alcoholic samples revealed low concentration of Cd. The samples were rich in essential metals such as Zn, Mg and Fe. It is essential that proliferation of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks through the border should be controlled to prevent incidences of health risk due to ingestion of toxic metals and the study recommended that the port health services and security personnel should be strict in maintaining in-flow of standard and non-expiry goods.