It is a common practice for farmers in Nigeria to use soils in municipal waste dump sites as fertile ground for the cultivation of a variety of leafy vegetables and the soils are also used as ‘compost’ by farmers without regards for the probable health hazards the heavy metal contents of such soils may pose. This was the case of farmers using the abandoned dumpsite soil at Isolo for their livelihood. It was this concern that prompted the determination of heavy metals in the soil and the edible part of Amaranthus cruentus planted on the soil and the control planted on Yaba College of Technology Botanical garden and that of the tomato plant used to inactivate metals in the dumpsite soil. The concentration of heavy metal in the edible part of Amaranthus vegetable from the dump site and the control are: Pb (35.00 – 23.68ppm); Zn (8.70 – 4.00ppm); Cu (7.68 – 4.34ppm); Cr (0.08 – 0.05ppm) and Fe (98.00 – 24.50ppm), respectively. The concentration of heavy metal in tomato plant is Pb (46.75ppm); Zn (85.64ppm); Cu (13.35ppm); Cr (0.25ppm) and Fe (86.94ppm). The levels of heavy metals in the dumpsite soil and the soil after harvesting the tomato plant are: Pb (127.50 – 56.75ppm); Zn (157.60 – 65.80ppm); Cu (27.60 – 12.25ppm); Cr (3.60 – 1.50ppm) and Fe (785.50 – 653.75ppm), respectively. The Amaranthus species from the dump soil accumulates more heavy metals than that of the control. The level of heavy metal in the dump soil decreases rapidly after harvesting the tomato plant.

Keywords: Heavy metals, dumpsite, health harzard, phytoremediation.