Concentration of arsenic in soil samples collected around the monazite processing facility, Thailand

Abstract

Arsenic (As) in soil is a contaminant originated from human activities including pesticide use, mining and ore processing operations. In this work, As concentration in soil samples collected around the monazite processing facility, Pathum Thani, Thailand, was investigated. The collections of 24 soil samples were collected from the monazite processing area and 7 soil samples were collected from the control area without the processing activity of the same facility. Soils were digested with the mixture of HNO3, HClO4 and HF using a microwave digester. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) equipped with an octopole reaction system (ORS) was used to determine the concentration of As in soils after the acid digestion. JB-3 (igneous rock) was the standard reference material used to check the accuracy of the method. It was found that the analytical results showed good agreement with the certified values. As concentration in soils collected from the monazite processing area ranged from 3.85 to 36.01 mg kg−1 with the mean of 13.06 mg kg−1. The concentration of As higher than the US EPA cancer soil screening level (22 mg kg−1) was observed for only one sample. The control area showed As concentration varied from 9.59 to 14.19 mg kg−1 with the mean of 11.97 mg kg−1. The obtained results from this work were compared with the contaminated soil data of Amphoe Ron Phibun, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.