Quantitative Assessment and Spatial Analysis of Metals and Metalloids in Soil Using the Geo-Accumulation Index in the Capital Town of Romblon Province, Philippines

Abstract

The municipality of Romblon in the Philippines is an island known for its marble industry. The subsurface of the Philippines is known for its limestone. The production of marble into slab, tiles, and novelty items requires heavy equipment to cut rocks and boulders. The finishing of marble requires polishing to smoothen the surface. During the manufacturing process, massive amounts of particulates and slurry are produced, and with a lack of technology and human expertise, the environment can be adversely affected. Hence, this study assessed and monitored the environmental conditions in the municipality of Romblon, particularly the soils and sediments, which were affected due to uncontrolled discharges and particulates deposition. A total of fifty-six soil and twenty-three sediment samples were collected and used to estimate the metal and metalloid (MM) concentrations in the whole area using a neural network-particle swarm optimization inverse distance weighting model (NN-PSO). There were nine MMs; e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu, Ba, Mn, Zn and Fe, with significant concentrations detected in the area in both soils and sediments. The geo-accumulation index was computed to assess the level of contamination in the area, and only the soil exhibited contamination with zinc, while others were still on a safe level. Nemerow’s pollution index (NPI) was calculated for the samples collected, and soil was evaluated and seen to have a light pollution level, while sediment was considered as “clean”. Furthermore, the single ecological risk (Er) index for both soil and sediment samples was considered to be a low pollution risk because all values of Er were less than 40.

Detection of Heavy Metals, Their Distribution in Tilapia spp., and Health Risks Assessment

“…The new model, as a result of calibration to adjust default calibration values and meet site specific factors, has been labelled as ‘soil ziploc mode’. After this, the portable XRF is ready for elemental analysis and becomes a reliable instrument for metal detection in this study for various media, and it has been used in various studies [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. The 77 samples were analyzed for the presence of ten (10) metals, such as arsenic (As), barium (Ba), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn).…”

Source analysis and health risk assessment of heavy metals in agricultural land of multi-mineral mining and smelting area in the Karst region – a case study of Jichangpo Town, Southwest China

“…Soil heavy metals enter the human body through the food chain and harm the human body. It arouses worries about the safety of agricultural products and widespread concerns about the heavy metals in cultivated soil [ [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] ]. Therefore, research on the accumulation degree, pollutant source, and health risks to humans of heavy metals in agricultural soil will make a significant contribution to food security.…”

“…The soil in the Karst area is characterized by poor, discontinuous, and thin solum, leading to a shortage of cultivated land and an increment in its value [ 13 ]. The soil in the Karst area has the typical features of high geochemical background with the accumulation of heavy metals [ 6 ]. Meanwhile, the ecological environment in the Karst area is very fragile and easily affected by human activities.…”

A New Method for Ecological Risk Assessment of Combined Contaminated Soil

“…Nevertheless, the actual contaminated soils were of infinite composition, while the joint effect studies cannot be exhaustive. pollutants, and the Nemerow risk index (NRI), based on RI, is used to characterize the overall ecological risk of combined pollutants [8,9,10,11,12,13]. However, the deduction process of RSVs neglects the influence of soil properties on toxicity effects, while NRI overlooks the complex interaction among different pollutants.…”

“…RSVs can roughly screen out potential high−risk pollutants in soil. A single risk index ( RI ) based on RSVs is commonly used to characterize the ecological risk of single pollutants, and the Nemerow risk index ( NRI ), based on RI , is used to characterize the overall ecological risk of combined pollutants [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. However, the deduction process of RSVs neglects the influence of soil properties on toxicity effects, while NRI overlooks the complex interaction among different pollutants.…”