Heavy Metal Contamination in Dusts and Soils in the Yoecheon Heavy Chemical Industrial Complex Area of Yosu City, Korea

Abstract

ABSTRACT The increase in the number of heavy metal emitting sources such as automobile emissions, factory emissions and industrial wastes has become the main concerns for the environmental scientists. Heavy metal contamination from the sources has been attracted public attention in the vicinity of the YHCIC(Yoecheon Heavy Chemical Industrial Complex), Chonnam, Korea. In order to investigate the degree of heavy metal contamination and to assess the level of As, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations, road dusts and soils in the studied areas were sampled and analyzed for As, Cu, Pb and Zn. The mean concentrations of As, Cu, Pb and Zn in road dust samples from the YHCIC area are higher than those from the main streets of the Yosu city and soil samples from the studied areas. The highest concentrations of 187 ppm Cu, 266 ppm Pb and 1122 ppm Zn are found in road dusts, however, concentrations of the analyzed elements in soil samples are significantly lower than those in the road dusts. The pollution indices of road dusts in YHCIC area and main streets of the Yosu city are also higher than those of the soils in this study area, and those of road dusts in the vicinity of YHCIC area are relatively higher than those in main streets of the Yosu city. The pollution indices of the dusts tend to be high in the sites of high industrialization indices. Road dusts may be contaminated with various heavy metals from the automobile emissions, tires and the YHCIC or dust with tires from the closed Au-Ag mines at the northern part of study area. However, main contamination source of the road dusts may be automobile emissions and tires, and minor source may be the metals from the YHCIC and the closed Au-Ag mines.