EVALUATION OF EFFICACY OF BRICKS AS GEOCHEMICAL MONITOR OF ATMOSPHERIC HEAVY-METAL POLLUTION

Geochemical monitoring of atmospheric heavy-metal pollution is so far limited to the use of peat, ice deposits and aquatic sediments as samp le type, These systems are open, dynamic and easily affected by climat ic variations, In contrast, bricks, which are more compact, can act as a better geochemical monitor, Heavy-metal (Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Pb) analys is in scores of soil and baked/unbaked brick samples collected from a large area in and around Agra City indicates approximately similar flu x in soils and bricks and insignificant fractionation during brick con struction of these metals. The concentration of analysed metals in the core of bricks remained unaffected even by substantial amounts of aci dic/alkaline rain under natural conditions, Thus, the feasibility of a new, hitherto untested, concept of bricks acting as a geochemical mon itor of atmospheric heavy-metal pollution has been systematically expl ored.