Abstract
Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) were investigated in the different sizes of road deposited sediments (RDS) around the active smelting industry to understand their sources and to assess the pollution and ecological risk levels. The highest PTEs concentrations was shown near the raw materials import port and the smelting facilities. The fine particles of RDS showed extremely high PTEs concentrations. Zn has the highest mean concentration in the < 63 μm particle size of RDS, followed by Pb > Cu > As > Cr > Ni > Cd > Hg. The PTEs concentrations of this study were the highest values compared to the soils around the smelter and the RDS in urban and industrial areas in the world. This indicates that these PTEs pollution in RDS were mainly attributed to the transportation of raw materials for the smelting industry. According to nemerow pollution index calculation, RDS at all sampling sites with particles of less than 250 mm was seriously polluted with PTEs. The ecological risk was also found to be very high in all RDS fractions and highly toxic elements such as Cd, Pb and Hg pose extremely risk. Given the total amounts PTEs in the road surface, it is necessary to apply RDS removal management plan to reduce the PTEs pollution.
Highlights
Toxic elements (PTEs) were investigated in the different sizes of road deposited sediments (RDS) around the active smelting industry to understand their sources and to assess the pollution and ecological risk levels
There are very few RDS studies in industrial areas compared to urban areas, the study of Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) concentration in RDS from the industrial area will make it possible to differentiate between transport and industrial activities
Our results show that road cleaning in industrial areas can remove enormous PTEs that affect the environments and human health
Summary
Toxic elements (PTEs) were investigated in the different sizes of road deposited sediments (RDS) around the active smelting industry to understand their sources and to assess the pollution and ecological risk levels. Pb > Cu > As > Cr > Ni > Cd > Hg. The PTEs concentrations of this study were the highest values compared to the soils around the smelter and the RDS in urban and industrial areas in the world. The PTEs concentrations of this study were the highest values compared to the soils around the smelter and the RDS in urban and industrial areas in the world This indicates that these PTEs pollution in RDS were mainly attributed to the transportation of raw materials for the smelting industry. Road deposited sediments (RDS) are highly contaminated with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) by various traffic and industry-related sources such as vehicular exhaust and non-exhaust sources, atmospheric deposition and surrounding soil erosion and spill of industrial raw materials during transportation[1,2,3,4,5,6]. The particle size distribution of RDS is a very important factor as it determines the behavior and mobility of the particles and shows the highest concentration of PTEs in fine particles[11,12,13]
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