Environmental interaction of antimony and arsenic near busy traffic nodes

Abstract

Antimony (Sb) and arsenic (As) are elements with similar chemistry, toxicity and binding properties, but different environmental risks and prevailing anthropogenic sources. A significant source of Sb contamination is associated with braking in extremely loaded traffic areas, where the produced abrasion dust contains up to 5% wt. of Sb2S3. In these same exposure areas, As still originates mostly from the combustion of fossil fuels. Heavily loaded crossroads from three different regions of the Czech Republic (Central Europe) were monitored for Sb content in road dusts, topsoils and reference soils during a two-year season (2016–2017). The same samples were also tested for As content to evaluate current contamination trends of both elements in exposed urban areas. The concentration of Sb varied from 5 to 70 µg g−1 in topsoils, and from 20 to 350 µg g−1 in road dusts with the preference for binding to the fine particle fraction (<0.1 mm). The average Sb concentration was up to 60 times the background value and decreased in the order: brake abrasion (103 µg g−1) > road dust (102 µg g−1)> topsoils (101 µg g−1) >> reference soils (<1 µg g−1). The concentration of As in road dust, topsoils and reference soils had about the same level, 101 µg g−1 indicating a more regional character of As pollution. Correlation factors for Sb/As versus iron (Fe)/organic matter (OM) indicated a more robust correlations in soils compared to road dusts and generally better correlations of Sb compared to As. While arsenic contamination has recently decreased thanks to a massive decline of arsenic emissions, antimony contamination indicates a dangerous trend due to growing automotive traffic.