Abstract
Air pollution poses a significant hazard to human health. Snow is able to accumulate pollutants present in the air. Therefore, determination of pollutants levels in the snow is a simple and effective method of environmental monitoring. Heavy metals are among the most hazardous pollutants. Various methods can be used to determine heavy metal concentrations in snow, on being total-reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (TXRF). TXRF allows for parallel identification of several dozens of metals with concentrations of the order of μg/L. Since quantitative analysis is performed using the internal standard method, calibration for each measured element is not required. An important advantage of this method is the ability to carry out measurements in a mobile laboratory. Performed in 2017 and 2018, this study aims to determine heavy metal contents in the snow in Arkhangelsk using the TXRF method. It is assumed that the contents of heavy metals do not exceed permissible levels. The relative concentrations of Fe, Mn, Ni are the most significant (with respect to MPC). The content of Cu, Zn, Sr, Pb in samples is statistically significant, while the presence of As, Cd, Hg has not be detected.
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