Environmental risk assessment and source apportionment of heavy metals in soils and natural plants surrounding a cement factory in NE Iran

Safari, Yaser; Karimi, Mahboobeh

doi:10.22104/aet.2020.4465.1244

Environmental risk assessment and source apportionment of heavy metals in soils and natural plants surrounding a cement factory in NE Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Yaser Safari ¹
Mahboobeh Karimi ²

¹ Shahrood University of Technology

² MSc in Soil Science, Central Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Science, University of Torbat-e-Jam, Iran

10.22104/aet.2020.4465.1244

Abstract

Introducing different heavy metals (HMs) into the environment through cement production has been recognized as a serious concern globally. The present study was carried out to assess the environmental risk of chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and cadmium (Cd) pollution in the soil and plants surrounding the Shahrood Cement Factory, Northeast Iran. A total of 35 surface soil samples (0–10 cm) and 23 natural plant samples were collected. After preparation, the soil samples and plant tissues were analyzed for their total concentration of Cr, Ni, Pb, and Cd. In addition to normal statistical analyses, the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method was applied to prepare the thematic distribution maps. The results showed that the total Cr, Ni, Cd, and Pb soil concentrations ranged from 4.19 to 21.74, 2.11 to 41.20, 0.77 to 4.23, and 2.72 to 54.50, respectively. Comparing the soil content of the studied HMs with their national threshold values revealed that except for Cd in limited locations, other HMs were substantially lower than their permissible limits, indicating that the area was not polluted. The spatial distribution maps of selected HMs suggested an anthropogenic source for elevated Pb and Cd soil concentrations, whereas Cr and Ni soil concentrations were influenced by both natural and anthropogenic factors. Furthermore, the relatively high Pb concentrations in the plant tissues implied the role of car exhaust in introducing this pollutant into the environment. Even though the environmental risk of HMs in the studied area currently appears to be low, preventing the adverse impacts of cement production in this area requires further precautions.

Keywords

Main Subjects

environmental risk assessment

References

[1] Addo, M.A., Darko, E.O., Gordon, C., Nyarko, B.J.B., Gbadago, J.K., Nyarko, E., Affum, H.A., Botwe, B.O. (2012). Evaluation of heavy metals contamination of soil and vegetation in the vicinity of a cement factory in the Volta region, Ghana. International journal of environmental science and technology, 2, 40–50.

[2] Al-Husseini, A.H.E. (2018). Ecological and health risk assessments of trace elements in Al-Shaibah dust, Basrah city, Iraq. Journal of university of Babylon for engineering sciences (JUBES), 26(6), 185-198.

[3] Al-Khashman, O.A., Shawabkeh, A.R. (2006). Metals distribution in soils around the cement factory in Southern Jordan. Environmental pollution, 140, 387-394.

[4] Cutillas-Barreiro, L., Pérez-Rodríguez, P., Gómez-Armesto, A., Fernández-Sanjurjo, M.J., Álvarez-Rodríguez, E., Núñez-Delgado, A., Arias-Estévez, M. Carlos Nóvoa-Muñoz, J. (2016). Lithological and land-use based assessment of heavy metal pollution in soils surrounding a cement plant in SW Europe. Science of the total environment, 562, 179–190.

[5] Delavar, M.A., Safari, Y. (2016). Spatial distribution of heavy metals in soils and plants in Zinc Town, Northwest Iran. International journal of environmental science and technology, 13, 297–306.

[6] Department of Environment, Islamic Republic of Iran. (2013). Soil Resources Quality Standards and its Directions, Tehran, Iran. (In Persian)

[7] Fan, Y., Zhu, T., Li, M., He, J., Huang, R. (2017). Heavy metal contamination in soil and brown rice and human health risk assessment near three mining areas in Central China. Journal of healthcare engineering. doi.org/10.1155/2017/4124302..

[8] Ghorbani, H., Aghababaei, A. Mirkarimi, H.R. (2013). The evaluation of industrial cement production plant on the environmental pollution using magnetic susceptibility technique. Agricultural sciences, 4, 792-799.

[9] Google LLC. Google Earth. Accessed September 3, 2020.

[10] Han, Y.M., Du, P.X., Cao, J.J., Posmentier, E.S. (2006). Multivariate analysis of heavy metal contamination in urban dusts of Xi’an, Central China. Science of the total environment, 355, 176–186.

[11] Jafari, A., Ghaderpoori, M., Kamarehi, B. Abdipour, H. (2019). Soil pollution evaluation and health risk assessment of heavy metals around Douroud cement factory, Iran. Environmental earth sciences, 78, 250.

[12]. Kabata-Pendias, A. (2010). Trace elements in soils and plants. Fourth ed. CRC press, Boka Raton.

[13]. Kolo, M.T., Khandaker, M.U., Amin, Y.M., Abdullah, W.H.B., Bradley, D.A. Alzimami, K.S. (2018). Assessment of health risk due to the exposure of heavy metals in soil around mega coal-fired cement factory in Nigeria. Results in physics, 11, 755-762.

[14] Lafta, J.G., Fadhil, H.S., Hussein, A.A. (2013). Heavy metals distribution and the variation of soil properties around Alqaim cement factory in Anbar Governorate – Iraq. International journal of advanced engineering and technology (IJAET), 3(1), 289-291.

[15] Nejadkoorki, F., Nicholson, K. (2012). Integrating passive sampling and interpolation techniques to assess the spatio-temporal variability of urban pollutants using limited data sets. Environmental engineering and management journal, 11(9), 1649-1655.

[16] Ogunkunle, C.O. Fatoba, P.O. (2014). Contamination and spatial distribution of heavy metals in top soil surrounding a mega cement factory. Atmospheric pollution research (APR), 5(2), 270-282.

[17] Olatunde, K.A., Sosanya, P.A., Bada, B.S., Ojekunle, Z.O. Abdussalaam, S.A. (2020). Distribution and ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in soils around a major cement factory, Ibese, Nigeria. Scientific African, 9, e00496.

[18] Qian, J., Shan, X.Q, Wang, Z.J., Tu, Q. (1996). Distribution and plant availability of heavy metals in different particle-size fractions of soil. Science of the total environment, 87, 131–141.

[19] Rezaei, M.R., Sayadi M.H., Khaksarnejad, M. (2016). Contamination of barberry with heavy metals in the vicinity of Qayen Cement Company, Khorasan, Iran, in 2014: A Case study. Journal of occupational health and epidemiology, 3(4), 216-223.

[20] Safari, Y., Delavar, M.A., Zhang, Ch., Noori, Z., Rahmanian, M. (2018). Assessing cadmium risk in wheat grain using soil threshold values. International journal of environmental science and technology, DOI: 10.1007/s13762-017-1422-z.

[21] Solgi, E. (2015). An investigation on Cd and Pb concentrations of soils around the Kurdistan cement factory in Western Iran. Journal of chemical health risks, 5(3), 179–191.

[22] Sposito, G., Lund, L.J., Chang, A.C. (1982). Trace metal chemistry in arid zone field soils amended with sewage sludge: I. Fractionation of Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in solid phases. Soil science society of America journal, 46, 260-264.

[23] Westerman, R.L. (ed). (1990). Soil testing and plant analysis. Soil science society of America, Wisconsin.

[24] Yadegarnia Naeini, F., Azimzadeh, H.R., Mosleh Arani, A., Sotoudeh, A. Kiani, B. (2019). Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals from cement factory dust. Environmental health Eengineering and management Journal, 6(2), 129–137.

[25] Zhang, X., Yan, Y., Wadood, S.A., Sun, Q. Guo, B. (2020). Source apportionment of cadmium pollution in agricultural soil based on cadmium isotope ratio analysis. Applied geochemistry, 123, 104776.