Abstract: Indiscriminate refuse dumping in and around Ado-Ekiti combined with improper management of few available dumpsites, such as Ilokun dumpsite, posed the threat of heavy metals pollution in the surrounding soils and underground water that needs assessment using pollution indices. Surface soils (0-15 cm) were taken from the centre of Ilokun dumpsite (0 m) and environs at different directions and distances during the dry and wet seasons, as well as a background sample at 1000 m away, adjacent to the dumpsite at Ilokun, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The concentration of heavy metals used to calculate the pollution indices for the soils were determined using Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer. The soils recorded high concentrations of all the heavy metals above the background concentrations irrespective of the season with highest concentrations at the 0 m except Ni and Fe at 50 m during the dry and wet season, respectively. The heavy metals concentration were in the order of Ni > Mn > Pb > Cr > Cu > Cd > Fe during the dry season, and Fe > Cr > Cu > Pb > Ni > Cd > Mn during the wet season. Using the Contamination Factor (CF), the soils were classified to be moderately contaminated with Cd and Fe to very high contamination with other metals during the dry season and low Cd contamination (0.87), moderate contamination with Fe, Pb, Mn and Ni and very high contamination with Cr and Cu during the wet season. At both seasons, the Pollution Load Index (PLI) indicates the soils to be generally polluted with heavy metals and the Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo) calculated shown the soils to be in unpolluted to moderately polluted levels. Enrichment Factor (EF) implied the soils to be deficiently enriched with all the heavy metals except Cr (7.90) and Cu (6.42) that were at significantly enrichment levels during the wet season. Modified Degree of Contamination (mCd) recorded, indicated the soils to be of very high to extremely high degree of contamination during the dry season and moderate degree of contamination during the wet season except 0 m with high degree of contamination. The concentration of heavy metals in the soils combined with some of the pollution indices indicated the soils in and around the Ilokun Dumpsite are being polluted with heavy metals from anthropogenic sources constituted by the indiscriminate refuse dumping.
Abstract: The heavy metal pollution degree in the soils around
the Zangezur copper and molybdenum combine in Syunik Marz,
Armenia was assessed. The results of the study showed that heavy
metal pollution degree in the soils mainly decreased with increasing
distance from the open mine and the ore enrichment combine which
indicated that the open mine and the ore enrichment combine were
the main sources of heavy metal pollution. The only exception was
observed in the northern part of the open mine where pollution
degree in the sites (along the open mine) situated 600 meters far from
the mine was higher than that in the sites located 300 meters far from
the mine. This can be explained by the characteristics of relief and air
currents as well as the weak vegetation cover of these sites and the
characteristics of soil structure. According to geo-accumulation index
(I-geo), contamination factor (Cf), contamination degree (Cd) and
pollution load index (PLI) values, the pollution degree in the soils
around the open mine and the ore enrichment combine was higher
than that in the soils around the tailing dumps which was due to the
proper and accurate operation of the Artsvanik tailing damp and the
recultivation of the Voghji tailing dump.
The high Cu and Mo pollution of the soils was conditioned by the
character of industrial activities, the moving direction of air currents
as well as the physicochemical peculiarities of the soils.
Abstract: One year (November 2009-October 2010) sediment monitoring was used to evaluate pollution status, concentration and distribution of heavy metals (As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn) in West Port of Malaysia. Sediment sample were collected from nine stations every four months. Geo-accumulation factor and Pollution Load Index (PLI) were estimated to better understand the pollution level in study area. The heavy metal concentration (Mg/g dry weight) were ranged from 20.2 to 162 for As, 7.4 to 27.6 for Cu, 0.244 to 3.53 for Cd, 11.5 to 61.5 for Cr, 0.11 to 0.409 for Hg, 7.2 to 22.2 for Ni, 22.3 to 80 for Pb and 23 to 98.3 for Zn. In general, concentration some metals (As,Cd, Hg and Pb) was higher than background values that are considered as serious concern for aquatic life and the human health.
Abstract: The coastal sediments of West Port of Malaysia was monitored from Nov. 2009 to Oct. 2010 to assess spatial distribution of heavy metals As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Zn and Pb. Sediment samples were collected from 10 stations in dry and rainy season in West Port. The range concentrations measured (Mg/g dry weight ) were from 23.4 to 98.3 for Zn, 22.3 to 80 for Pb, 7.4 to 27.6 Cu, 0.244 to 3.53 for Cd, 7.2 to 22.2 for Ni, 20.2 to 162 for As, 0.11 to 0.409 for Hg and 11.5 to 61.5 for Cr. The geochemical indexes used in this study were Geoaccumulation (Igeo), Contamination Factor (CF) and Pollution Load Index (PLI); these indexes were used to evaluate the levels of sediment contaminations. The results of these indexes show that, the status of West Port sediment quality are moderately polluted by heavy metals except in arsenic which shows the high level of pollution.