Pollution indices of heavy metals in the Western Arabian Gulf coastal area

Abstract

An environmental assessment of the Western Arabian Gulf Coastal regions was done by assessing heavy metals in sediments and seawater, as well as other environmental parameters. A total of 94 sediment samples and 94 water samples were collected from 22 locations to estimate 12 heavy metals in each sample. This was achieved by using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer -ICP-OES and Direct Mercury Analyzer. In general, metals were significantly higher in sediment samples compared with water samples. The pollution index PI and sediments pollution index SPI proved that the study areas were unpolluted to slightly polluted with regard to sediments and water except for one location. Cadmium showed polluting levels in five sites of the studied area, thus it was considered as the most polluting heavy metal among the other studied metals. Zinc was contaminating two sites, while each of Mn, Cu, Pb, and Cr reached pollution levels in one site. On the other hand, Fe, Ni and Hg had non-polluting levels. The study revealed that about 82% of the Arabian Gulf western coasts are non-polluted to slightly polluted.