QUESTION: Method for testing road-side plants for Lead in Kenya - 01 Jul 2007 Nairobi Kenya

Please assist me with the methodology involved in testing lead contaminated plants along a busy road

ANSWER: 07 Aug 2007

Dear Mr. Manani,

Thanks for your enquiry. Thanks for sending your email address - I had tried to phone you some weeks ago and spoke to someone on your mobile telephone line indicating that we needed the email address so that you could get our already prepared response.

We are happy to give you our response as follows: We have a contact at our State health Department laboratory who may be able to help. He is Mr Dante Crisante of Division of Analytical Laboratories (DAL) - Trace Metals, NSW Health Department. The Address is PO Box 162 Lidcombe NSW 1825, Australia. website is www.health.nsw.gov.au

Another contact available to us is Dr Suzie Reichman who is the author of "The Responses of plants to metal Toxicity" published by Ameef in 2006. Dr Reichman lectures in Soil Chemistry, Lincoln University in New Zealand, previously Research Fellow, School of Botany, University of Melbourne. Address is Lincoln University, New Zealand 64.

Another contact is Prof. Alan J. M. Baker from the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne who has published information in this area. Dr Alan Baker is a co-author of "EXTRACT of Metal Accumulating Plants lead uptake data" (attached).

Address Rm 123, New Botany Building, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.

We hope you will make some good progress. Kindly let us know if there are ways we can continue to assist you.

Yours Sincerely

Patrick M. Muraguri

Volunteer Research and Information Officer

Update 2012: 

Multivariate Analysis Of Selected Roadside Plants (Dalbergia Sissoo And Cannabis Sativa) For Lead Pollution Monitoring Huma Pirzada, Sheikh Saeed Ahmad, Audil Rashid  and Tahir Shah. Pak. J. Bot., 41(4): 1729-1736, 2009.

Leaves of roadside plants as bioindicator of traffic related lead pollution during different seasons in Sargodha, Pakistan Naima Huma Naveed, Aima Iram Batool, Fayyaz Ur Rehman and Uzma Hameed. African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology Vol. 4(11), pp. 770-774, November, 2010