Abstract
The present work is carried out to obtain quantitative information of some natural radioactive materials and heavy metals in water and sediment samples along the Alexandria Coastline, as a step to construct the baseline map of the background radioactivity level in the Egyptian environment and also as a base data to assess the future physicochemical changes of surface coastal water and sediment in the studied area. The distribution of natural gamma emitting radionuclides such as 238U, 232Th and 40K has been established by gamma spectrometry. The results show that the area of Alexandria coast is affected by the existence of high back-ground radiation from the Rashid coast at the eastern side which has high levels of radioisotope concentrations due to black sand deposits which are dominant in this area. The absorbed dose rate (D, nGy·h-1), annual effective dose equivalent, external hazard index (Hex) and representative level index (Ir) of the investigated radioactive materials were calculated. The concentration of Pb2+, Cd2+, Ni2+, Mn2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Zn2+ and Cr3+ ions has been determined using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. The total dissolved solids (TDS) in water samples ranged from 33,000 mg/l to 42,000 mg/l, the salinity ranged from 37.9% to 40.5% and pH ranged from 7.6 to 7.9. Some of the sediment quality guidelines are calculated and they are the metal pollution index (MPI), the contamination factor (CF), degree of contamination (Cdeg), and Pollution load index (PLI).
Highlights
Pollution is the most serious of all environmental problems and posses a major threat to the health and wellbeing of millions of people and global ecosystems
The mean absorbed dose rate is found to be lower than the world average value (51 nGy∙h−1: UNSCEAR, 2000)
The results demonstrate that the main source of radiation along the Alexandria coast is the black sand supplied by the River Nile through the Rashid branch
Summary
Pollution is the most serious of all environmental problems and posses a major threat to the health and wellbeing of millions of people and global ecosystems. Most of radionuclides have a low solubility in water and tend to be sorbed onto the particulate matter, they accumulate in sediments. Fine sediments, with their large surface area, tend to sorb more than coarse sediments. The pollution of marine ecosystems by heavy metals is a world-wide problem. The contamination levels of the aquatic environment by heavy metals can be estimated by analyzing its water and sediments. Heavy metals are considered a major contaminant in coastal and marine environments worldwide [7]. They pose a serious threat to human health, living organisms and natural ecosystems because of their toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation characteristics [8]. Heavy metals can contribute in degradation of marine ecosystems by reducing species diversity and through accumulation of metals in living organisms [13]
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