Grass and surface soils as monitors of atmospheric metal pollution in Central Scotland

Abstract

A hypothesis has been proposed that some respiratory disease could be causally related to air pollution by metals. To investigate more fully the suggested link between such pollution and respiratory disease in towns in central Scotland, a large number of sites for monitoring the pattern of air pollution within each town was required. The levels of metals in indigenous samplers, namely Agropyron repens and surface soils, were measured within one of these towns, Armadale, to determine the effectiveness of these indicators as high-density monitors of atmospheric pollution by metals. Both surface soils and Agropyron repens were useful monitors of metals, either when a large number of metal levels were required, or when rapid results were desirable. The surveys showed a large range in the values of the metals throughout Armadale for each metal measured; a large variation in values between different metals; and a decline in the concentrations of metals from the vicinity of the town's steel foundry to the periphery of the town.