Lead and other heavy metals in soils impacted by exterior legacy paint in residential areas of south west England

Abstract

Legacy paint on publicly-accessible structures in residential areas of Plymouth, UK (a bridge parapet, hospital railings, a goal frame, urban street paving and a telephone kiosk) and local paint-contaminated soils have been analysed for lead and other heavy metals (chromium, zinc and barium) by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Lead was detected in all paints analysed (n=56) apart from two fragments of yellow road markings, with maximum concentrations exceeding 300gkg. Soils were contaminated by Pb to varying degrees that depended on the condition and Pb content of the paint applications and the nature and vegetation of the soil, with a maximum concentration of 27gkg and a maximum enrichment factor normalised to grain size and regional baseline soil of 270. While Cr showed no clear contamination in soils that could be attributed to paint, contamination from this source was evident for Zn in soil by the goal frame and for Ba and Zn in soil by the bridge parapet. Application of a physiologically-based extraction test to the soils revealed stomach bioaccessibilities that were variable among the samples and between the metals but that were greatest for Zn and lowest for Cr. With the exception of Cr, bioaccessibility generally decreased in the intestine, with mean intestinal bioaccessibilities relative to total metal of about 6% for Pb and Ba, 0.9% for Cr and 1.6% for Zn. From both a health and environmental perspective, Pb is the heavy metal of greatest concern because of its common occurrence at high concentrations in legacy paints, coupled with a relatively high bioaccessibility and well-documented chronic neurotoxicity. Public exposure to Pb in residential areas may arise through direct contact with paint or soil or via the intrusion of contaminated geosolids to the household on shoes or as airborne dust.

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

“…Barium sulphate (barite) is a common component of white paint pigments, such as lithopone (a mixture of barium sulphate and zinc oxide) (Walker et al 2011). It is common to find the metals Pb, Ba and also Zn, together in paints and paint-polluted soils (Harroun et al 2011;Turner and Lewis 2018;Walker et al 2011) with Pb and Ba being highly available (Turner and Lewis 2018). Hence, the higher availability of Pb and Ba (Table 4) reinforced the hypothesis that paint was the source of Pb for the MI soil.…”

Spatial contamination and health risks of heavy metal(loid)s in surface soils from a petrochemical complex in the north-eastern region of Algeria

“…Average concentrations are 63 mg kg -1 in the study area but the highest levels are found in S6, area representing the road zone, with 50% of samples (N=27) exceeding 100 mg kg -1 , which is the French regulatory limit for this MTE. Such an increase in Pb concentrations in areas with dense traffic has been observed in other cities, even with the sharp increase of unleaded fuel utilization in European countries because of the high stability of lead in soils (Turner and Lewis 2018). Moreover, in Algeria 89% of the gasoline consumption is still leaded (Maas et al 2010).…”

Level, Source, and Spatial Distribution of Potentially Toxic Elements in Agricultural Soil of Typical Mining Areas in Xiangjiang River Basin, Hunan Province

“…Pb pollution hotspots include the mining region in southern Hengyang and the densely populated residential areas of Xiangtan City, which are possibly strongly associated with anthropogenic inputs from vehicle emissions and Pb-based paints [ 32 , 33 ]. In addition, sewage from mining and sand washing is often used to irrigate farmlands, and smelting slag is stacked near farmlands, which then flows into the fields through rainwater leaching and infiltration.…”