WET DEPOSITION OF IONIC ALKYLLEADS AND TOTAL LEAD IN URBAN AREAS OF CROATIA

Concentration of ionic alkyllead compounds (IAL) and total lead have b een measured in wet deposition from two urban areas in Croatia (towns of Zagreb and Sibenik). Rain water and snow contained IAL in the conce ntration range of 10-280 ngPb l-1 or 0.03-4% expressed as a percentage of the total lead. The most abundant IAL species were trialkyllead de rivatives. Inorganic and dialkyllead species in rainwater were found t o be partially bound to particles, whereas trialkyllead was entirely d issolved. During winter an increased level of IAL was observed in rain , but not in snow samples. An estimation has shown that organic and to tal lead deposited by the wet precipitation on the area of the town re present only a small portion (<5%) of lead compounds emitted from vehi cles.