Zx. Lin et al., THE SOURCE AND FATE OF PB IN CONTAMINATED SOILS AT THE URBAN AREA OF FALUN IN CENTRAL SWEDEN, Science of the total environment, 209(1), 1998, pp. 47-58
For centuries the city of Falun in central Sweden has been an importan
t industrial region of copper mining, producing sulphuric acid and pai
nt pigment. The mining and chemical industries have generated vast amo
unts of wastes which have been deposited around the areas. A large par
t of the city is now built on the wastes. In the last two decades, sig
nificant amounts of work on the waste management have been conducted.
Previous investigations showed that the soils of the urban areas have
been contaminated by the wastes with a rather high level of lead (Pb).
What is the speciation of soil-Pb? How does the Pb reach the biospher
e? This paper gives answers toward these environmental problems. This
study investigates the distribution of Pb in the urban soils by means
of chemical and mineralogical methods the quantity and quality of the
fallout particles; and traces the potential sources of contamination.
The data indicate that in Falun urban soil-Pb speciation, may mainly b
e associated with some mineral phases, e.g. Fe and Mn oxides, sulphide
s, Pb-carbonates, as well as retained by organic matters and clay mine
rals. The concentrations of water soluble Pb are very low. Because of
the properties of the Pb-bearing phases, the high concentrations of so
il-Pb in the urban area are not likely to have a significant affect on
the blood-Pb levels of pre-school children living in the urban areas.
Lead and arsenic are found to be associated with iron oxides in the f
allout particles collected in the areas. These fine grained particles
may have been distributed through wind-related transportation from the
industrial wastes dumped in the areas. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.