Abstract
Background: Soil pollution with heavy metals seriously threatens soil quality, food safety, and humanhealth. This study was conducted to determine the soil pollution level and ecological risk assessmentof different heavy metals in agricultural soils around Nakhlak Pb-Zn mine, located in Anarak district,Nain county of Isfahan province.Methods: A total of 50 soil samples were collected from agricultural land around Nakhlak mine andanalyzed to determine the concentrations of Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni, Cu, and Mn. The geo-accumulation index(Igeo), enrichment factor (EF), and potential ecological-risk index (Er) were used to assess the level ofsoil pollution with heavy metals.Results: The mean concentrations of Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni, Cu, and Mn were 355, 2.72, 347, 26, 36, and505 mg/kg, respectively, which were higher than the background values of world soils. Based on theIgeo index, the study area was moderately to heavily contaminated with Pb and Zn, uncontaminated tomoderate contaminated with Cd and Cu, and uncontaminated with Mn and Ni. According to the EFvalues, the study soil was moderately contaminated with Mn, Ni, and Cu, significantly contaminatedwith Cd and Zn, and highly enriched with Pb. The RI values showed a moderate level of heavy metalscontamination in the study soil.Conclusion: According to the results, the ecological risk of heavy metals for ecosystem in agriculturallands around Nakhlak Pb-Zn mine is moderate. However, the contamination status should be consideredperiodically.
Highlights
Environmental pollution is a serious problem in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, such as Iran [1]
The mean concentrations of heavy metals studied were higher than their background values (Table 2), but their concentrations, with the exception of Pb concentration, were lower than their corresponding values proposed by Iranian Environmental Quality Standard (IEQS), which indicates that the mining activities have a considerable influence on the Pb concentration in the soil
The Index of geo-accumulation (Igeo) mean value of Cu in soil samples was smaller than 1, which according to Ho et al [18] and Bhuiyan et al [19], it is suggested that the agricultural soil around Nakhlak mine is uncontaminated to moderately contaminated by Cu
Summary
Environmental pollution is a serious problem in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, such as Iran [1]. Some other heavy metals, such as Pb, Co, Cd, As, and Cr are considered as harmful heavy metals [6] These metals have adverse effects on the normal function of human body and may contribute to the development of different diseases, especially in children and pregnant women [7,8]. In this regard, it has been reported that contact with heavy metals-contaminated soil and consumption of vegetables with high concentrations of heavy metals reduced human life expectancy by 9–10 years in Copsa Mica and Baia Mare, Romania [9]. The Igeo values for Pb in about 25% of the soil samples were higher than 3 and in more than
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