Abstract
A study of an environmental assessment of dust fall and the associated heavy metal contents was conducted during the period from the first of March 2011 to the end of February 2012 at adjoining area of a phosphate fertilizer plant. Around the industrial area 8 dust fall stations were established and one of them was built upwind far from pollution activities to be taken as a control sample. Dust fall samples collected monthly weighed and then prepared to be analyzed through Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) to obtain heavy metal concentration. Meteorological parameters influencing the distribution of dust fall such as wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, rain fall and pressure were determined. Results showed that deposition flow rates were 38.2. 47.5, 57.7, 44.3, 39.4, 38.2, 42.7 and 5.9 g/m2·month for the sites No., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively, and were compared with the findings of other investigators of like industrial areas worldwide. Levels of heavy metal As, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, and Hg in the deposited dust fall were 3.30, 26.46, 22.33, 235.00, 4.53 and 3.80 μg/g respectively. Enrichment coefficients of the heavy metals in the dust fall were found to be significant and reached the values 1.81, 0.90, 0.85, 0.65, 0.41 and 0.35 for zinc, lead, cadmium, copper, mercury and arsenic respectively. The paper ends with results and recommendations suggesting a methodology to remediate the investigated area polluted with heavy metals and control measures for the fertilizer plant to reduce pollution into the surrounding environment.
Highlights
The anthropogenic impact on the adjoining environments of industrial complexes has been documented in many parts of the world [1,2,3]
Heavy metal pollution of the atmosphere can be estimated by determining the concentration of these heavy metals in settleable particles, because the heavy metals are associated with the solid particulate matter in many forms
The aim of this study was to estimate dust fall released in the vicinity of the phosphate fertilizer plant and determination of heavy metal concentrations associated with these dusts
Summary
The anthropogenic impact on the adjoining environments of industrial complexes has been documented in many parts of the world [1,2,3]. Heavy metals such as As, Cu, Pb, Z, Cd and Hg have been evaluated in an agricultural area nearby the phosphate fertilizer plant, Assiut, Egypt. Lead is one of the metals of most interest in environmental samples In their studies, many investigators have concentrated on the determination of lead alone in particulate matter [8,9] but other heavy metals have been extensively studied [10,11,12,13]
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