Heavy metal contamination in the vicinity of an industrial area near Bucharest

Abstract

Background, aim, and scope Heavy metals such as lead are well known to cause harmful health effects. Especially children are particularly susceptible to increased levels of lead in their blood. It is also a fact that lead concentration is increasing in the environment due to increased anthropogenic activity. The risk of heavy metal contamination is pronounced in the environment adjacent to large industrial complexes. In a combined case study, the environmental pollution by heavy metals was related to children's health in the vicinity of an industrial area located 4 km south-east from Bucharest about 2 km east from the nearest townPantelimon. This site includes companies processing different, nonferrous solid wastes for recovery of heavy metals and producing different nonferrous alloys and lead batteries. In this paper, mainly the results of environmental sampling and analyses are summarized. Materials and methods Water, soil, and atmospheric deposition samples were collected from different locations within 3 km from the industrial area. For comparison, samples were also taken from Bucharest. Water samples were filtered (<0.45 μm), extracted by salpetric acid, and quantified by ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Soil samples were dried, sieved (<2 mm), extracted by aqua regia and analyzed by AAS. In order to quantify the atmospheric deposition, three kinds of permanently open collecting pots were used on nine different sites between August and November 2006. Results At most sampling locations, the heavy metal concentrations in soil decrease with increasing distance to the presumably major source of pollution. Highest heavy metal concentrations were found in 10-20 cm soil depths. There were also decreasing heavy metal concentrations for atmospheric deposition with increasing distance to the industrial site. In surface and groundwater samples, traces of zinc, copper and lead were detected. Discussion The heavy metal concentrations in soil were increased in the study area, mostly under legal action limits in low-concern areas (e.g., 1,000 mg Pb/kg dry soil), but often above action limits for high-concern areas (100 mg Pb/kg dry soil) such as populated areas. The soluble lead concentrations in water samples indicate a need for monitoring and assessing water quality in more detail. The results for atmospheric deposition showed increased dust precipitation and heavy metal loads in the study area compared to Bucharest. However, based on mass flow balance calculations, the actual atmospheric deposition of heavy metals must be much lower than it was in the past decades. Conclusions It was shown that highest lead values in water, soil and atmospheric deposition are rather to be found near the investigated industrial site than at the control sites in Bucharest. Our results correspond very well with results that show that children from Pantelimon have significantly increased lead concentrations in their blood compared to children in Bucharest. The increased lead contamination around the investigated industrial area is likely to have

Elemental contamination of an open-pit mining area in the Peruvian Andes

“…Several studies (Cristol et al 2008;Edwards et al 2009;Velea et al 2009) show how water pollution can influence the contamination of animal (and probably human) tissues directly and indirectly. We studied this effect by determining the levels of several elements in blood samples.…”

The accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural land and the associated potential ecological risks in Shenzhen, China

“…The rapid industrialization, together with the growing tourism industry, leads to traffic pollution and significantly reduces the quantity and quality of agricultural lands. These factors are considered the major sources of heavy metals in the study area (Velea et al 2009;Paoli et al 2013). …”

“…One of the most significant problems is that heavy metals have begun to accumulate in the agricultural topsoil in cities, especially in areas with rapid urbanization. Heavy metal pollution has reduced both the ecological functions of soil and the activity of soil microbes, while also directly and indirectly affecting the health of citizens (Velea et al 2009). Although several studies have investigated the accumulation of heavy metals in urban soils, most have focused only on industrial or outdoor urban recreation areas (Huang et al 2003(Huang et al , 2007Zhang et al 2013).…”

ESTROM, Environmental Science and Technology in Romania—programme overview

“…At this event, a proceedings publication with ten articles was presented (Panin and Giger 2008). All nine ESTROM projects are presented as summary reports in this Special Issue of Environmental Science and Pollution Research (Alexandrow and Bloesch 2009;Bravo et al 2009;Moldovan and Alder 2009;Neamtu et al 2009;Pavel et al 2009;Soutter et al 2009;Velea et al 2009;Zobrist et al 2009). The presentation files of the talks of the ESTROM meetings and the International Conference are available on the Internet (http://www.cnmp.ro/estrom_en.php?…”