Assessment of Heavy Metal (loid) Pollution Using Pollution Index in Agricultural Field Adjacent to Industrial Area

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution in arable field is an critical problem due to crop safety. For this reason, national survey of heavy metal pollution in the arable field near at the industrial area has been conducted from 1999 in Korea. The main purpose of this research was to monitor heavy metal pollution in Chungnam/chungbuk province and to evaluate pollution index (PI) in soil. Total of 15 sampling locations were examined and average concentration of each heavy metals were following: As- 2.99±2.63, Cd – 0.23±0.07, Cu – 9.35±6.48, Ni – 9.26±8.03, Pb – 10.18±3.32, Zn – 52.9±17.18. No sampling site was exceeded threshold level of each heavy metals. Calculated PI in soil was ranged between 0.03 – 0.27 indicating that also no heavy metal pollution is occurred in examined sampling locations. Although, no heavy metal pollution was observed in the examined sites but monitoring of heavy metal pollution should be continued for possible accidental pollution in arable field near at the industrial area.