Methods of Assessing and Analyzing Heavy Metal Pollution in Soils

Abstract

As heavy metal pollution in soils grows to be an environmental and public health concern, there is need to apply accurate, precise, cost effective, and highly sensitive analytical approaches to assay the contaminant levels. The results of such analyses can be used in making informed plans to curtail pollution by using greener, reclamation and/or remediation methods in affected land. In this chapter, direct and indirect analytical methods to assay heavy metals in soils and their working approaches are discussed. The sampling of targeted soils and before-analysis preparations of analytical samples are also elaborated. Spectrometric techniques were found to be the most superior analytical methods due to their low detection limits, high sensitivity and contaminant identification power and extensive lineal ranges for multi-elemental analysis. However, equipment uses and sample introduction approaches require optimization in the techniques to prevent physical, chemical, and spectral interferences, which compromise analytical accuracy.