"Measurement of lead and heavy metal accumulation in the soils of urban area of Karachi"

Lead and heave metal accumulation in the soils of urban area or karachi has been determined. The measurement of these heavy metal accumulation in soil appears to be a useful tool for evaluating the potential hazard of the env ironment. Samples of the soils were collected from various intersections of major roads where traffic density was very high. The range of average conc entration of lead was around 61 to 635 ppm, copper 58 to 196 ppm, manganese 64 to 186 pm and zinc was 56 to 301 ppm. The gravitational sedimentation a nd impact on vegetation of coarse fraction is responsible for the high lead contamination of vegetation and soils. The data collected shows that almos t all the pollution is being generated by automobile exhaust in the urban a rea of Karachi. Soil acts as important sink for pollutants released through different activities.