Abstract
BackgroundDue to pedogeochemical background and anthropogenic sources, heavy metal contamination of soil is a widespread problem in some parts of Zanjan province located in North West Iran. In this study an affected area located near National Iranian Lead and Zinc Company (NILZ) was selected for detailed study.MethodologyThirty soil samples and eighteen leaf samples were collected and analyzed for heavy metal contamination by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Both soil and plant samples were found to be basically polluted by Pb (72.60 and 97.11), Zn (546.47 and 166.61), and Cd (1.80 and 1.55) mg. kg−1 respectively. High concentrations of these elements in soil and plant species signifies possible health risks to humans. The distribution maps drawn using Arc GIS (10) show high concentrations of these toxic metals around Dizajabaad village. To assess vulnerability and health risks of metal concentrations in human bodies’ twenty nine fingernail samples were also collected from people living in this village.Results and discussionAnalysis for different heavy metal contents of nail samples reveals very high levels of the same toxic elements (Pb = 15.15, Cd = 1.18, As = 15.47, Zn = 68.46 and Ni = 18.22 mg. kg−1) compared with samples collected from an unaffected area and available values indicated in the literature. Further, high concentration of heavy metals in the nail samples suggests long term exposure of inhabitants to these toxic metals.
Highlights
Heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni) occur naturally in water, soil and biota
Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis elucidate the anthropogenic source of the pollutants
Leaves of three native plant species namely; Populus, Molus domestica and Salix alba collected from the studied village compared with the leaves of the same trees from an unaffected location demonstrate that the soil pollution by the studied heavy metals had positively affected the concentration of the metals in the studied plant species
Summary
Heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni) occur naturally in water, soil and biota. Their concentrations depend on local geology, local addition from mining and industry and/or globally distributed pollution [1,2,3,4,5]. Elevated levels of these metals in the environment may arise from anthropogenic sources, including consumption of food from contaminated environments [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. In this study an affected area located near National Iranian Lead and Zinc Company (NILZ) was selected for detailed study
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