Impact of highway traffic and the acoustic screen on the content and spatial distribution of heavy metals in soils

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed intensification of road traffic and, with it, the amount of substances emitted by vehicles. Such emissions need to be monitored for public health purposes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the highway traffic on the total content and bioavailability of Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd, Cr and Pb in nearby soils as well as influence of an acoustic screen on spatial distribution of the metals. The material included 40 soil samples collected from 15 research points located 5, 10, 25 and 50 m away from the road acoustic screen and from 4 points between the screen and the highway. Additionally, 5 research points were located next to the metal barrier. Selected physicochemical properties of soils were determined: soil texture, soil pH, TOC and CaCO3 content. The total content of heavy metals in the soils was determined by AAS after digestion in aqua regia and bioavailable forms in 1 M diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid. The research found low impact of the highway traffic on the content of heavy metals in soils; however, due to a very short period of this potential impact (5 years), the moderately polluted category of geo-accumulation index of cadmium and high bioavailability of lead indicate the need of repeating the research within the next several years. Furthermore, the road acoustic screen significantly influenced spatial distribution of the metals in soils.

Level of Contamination Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in the Urban Soils of Volos City (Central Greece)

“…The occurrence of unexpectedly higher concentrations of nickel at the railway station and on the west side of the study area may be related to its geochemical origin, as recorded in a previous study [48]. The Igeo values of class II (0-1) were found for Pb, Co, and Cr near the main city roads, possibly affected by heavy traffic [57][58][59][60].…”

Heavy metal pollution in soils and urban-grown organic vegetables in the province of Sevilla, Spain

“…The average ratio of the extractable concentration to total concentration, that is metal extractability, increased in the order Cr<Ni<Mn<Zn<Cu<Pb<Cd, being on average greater than 30 % for Cu, Pb, and Cd. In a recent study, Różański et al (2017) found that Pb was the most bioavailable and mobile element (mean PbDTPA 25.79 %).…”

Pollution status and human health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban street dust of Tyumen city, Russia

“…Urban street dust is a heterogeneous mixture of particles coming from a variety of sources including automobile exhaust, atmospheric aerosols, industrial emissions, wear and tear on brakes and tires, soil erosion, weathering of building materials, and plant residue (Charlesworth et al 2003;Tervahattu et al 2006; Thorpe and Harrison 2008;Gunawardana et al 2012;Franco et al 2017;Men et al 2018). At the same time, street dust particles are a source of pollutants in roadside soils (Prokof'eva et al 2017;Ró _ zański et al 2017;Pariente et al 2019), which can re-enter the atmosphere through resuspension (Jordanova et al 2014) or migrate with surface runoff and stormwater (Calvillo et al 2015;Liu et al 2016). Numerous studies are devoted to the status of various pollutants, primarily PTEs and PAHs, in street dust in some of the world's largest megacities, industrial production centres (Liu et al 2007;Saeedi et al 2012;Acosta et al 2014;Yu et al 2014;Soltani et al 2015;Bandowe and Nkansah 2016;Tang et al 2017;Men et al 2018;Cappelletti et al 2019), cities, and towns (Majumdar et al 2017;Ghanavati et al 2019;Zhaoyong et al 2019).…”