Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Soil at a Former Painting Industry Facility

Abstract

Soil samples from the site of the former largest paint and varnish factory in ex-Yugoslavia were analyzed for arsenic and eight heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Zn, Cr, Ni, Cu, Fe, and Hg). Several additional soil properties (pH, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water content) were also measured. Multivariate analysis showed strong correlations between Pb and Zn; and a moderate correlation between Cu and Ni. There was no correlation between heavy metals and any of the analyzed soil properties parameters. A factor analysis grouped most heavy metals, except Cd, which showed different behavior, and Fe and As, which associated with soil properties. The soil samples were clustered into two distinctive groups. Positive matrix factorization receptor modeling clearly identified Zn and Pb as belonging to the traffic vehicle factor. The second factor dominating arsenic was industrial chemical emissions, while the third factor containing most of the heavy metals was attributed to natural background variation. The last non-metallic factor, dominated by sulfur, was the result of past activities in the paint facility. The average enrichment factor values were for the metals analyzed were: 0.73; 0.71; 2.4; 0.58; 2.3; 0.87; 1.6; and 0.76; for Cr, Cd, Pb, Ni, Zn, Cu, As, and Hg, respectively. Only moderate soil enrichment by Pb and Zn was found. The geoaccumulation index values showed a moderately polluted soil with Pb and Zn, but most contributing to the ecological risk were Cd with 63% and Hg with 19%. These two metals are of major concern in this case study due to their high toxicity, even though they are present at very low concentrations. Generally, a moderate ecological risk was estimated for most soil samples, except for a small number of high-risk samples. Spatial distribution mapped three severely polluted sub-areas. In general, the paint and varnish industry moderately contributes to the contamination of soil. The main ecological risk from metal contamination is not related to the paint technological production process itself, but from other activities at the site that deposit of heavy metals into the soil.

Geospatial Mapping of Health Risk from Trace Metal(loid)s in the Soil at an Abandoned Painting Factory

“…The second ELCR hotspot coincided with the area used for the manipulation with the raw materials in the past. These findings were harmonized with the previous investigation of the same location (Radomirović et al, 2020) In this work, it seems reasonable to conclude that Pb, Cr and As constitute an anthropogenic component of the soil contamination, which is associated with specific activities in the past. Apart from this, the other toxic metal(loid)s appear to originate from the soil parent materials that are mostly the alluvial river deposits from the Danube River bank terrace (Mihailović et al, 2015).…”

“…The samples were air-dried in the laboratory, pulverized, and sieved (2 mm pores). Afterwards, the samples were subjected to microwave-assisted digestion as described elsewhere (Radomirović et al, 2020).…”

“…These studies were aimed to recognize the soil contamination pattern and pinpoint the potential pollution sources. Also, ecological risk indices have been commonly evaluated to get a better insight into soil pollution (Dragović et al, 2014;Çulha, et al, 2017;Relić et al, 2019;Radomirović et al, 2020;Lukić et al, 2020;Minkina et al, 2020).…”

“…This study deals with the trace elements contamination of the soil in the facility of an abandoned painting factory (Duga doo, Belgrade). The pollution by toxic trace metal(loid)s of this area has been studied recently (Radomirović et al, 2020), but no health risk assessment was made. The aim of this study is to identify pollution hotspots and to identify anthropogenic sources of the toxic meta(loid)s contamination of soil by geospatial mapping of HRA results.…”

Baseline Study of Trace Element Concentrations in Sediments of the Intertidal Zone of Amazonian Oceanic Beaches

“…The classification recorded for Cd by Igeo and CF demonstrates anthropic contamination of the aforementioned sampling points (Nobi et al, 2010;Bramha et al, 2014;Orani et al, 2018). The most frequent sources of Cd contamination are domestic sewage, industrial waste, fertilizers, paint industries, and ship paint (Nobi et al, 2010;Watts et al, 2017;Radomirović et al, 2020). Unlike regions in which Cd contamination is caused by industries and residential areas in their surroundings (Bramha et al, 2014;Salam et al, 2021), the possible contamination cause is not clear in our study area, since the region has low population density and does not have large industries or large agricultural areas that use fertilizers.…”