TITLE:
A Study of Heavy Metals in the Dust Fall around Assiut Fertilizer Plant
AUTHORS:
Thabet A. Mohamed, Mohamed Abuel-Kassem Mohamed, Ragab Rabeiy, Mahmoud A. Ghandour
KEYWORDS:
Heavy Metal; Dust Fall Station; Deposition Flow Rate; Phosphate Fertilizer Plant; Meteorological Parameters
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.4 No.12,
December
31,
2013
ABSTRACT: A study of an environmental assessment
of dust fall and the associated heavy metal contents was conducted during the
period from the first of March 2011 to the end of February 2012 at adjoining
area of a phosphate fertilizer plant. Around the industrial area 8 dust fall
stations were established and one of them was built upwind far from pollution
activities to be taken as a control sample. Dust fall samples collected monthly
weighed and then prepared to be analyzed through Inductively Coupled
Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) to obtain heavy metal concentration.
Meteorological parameters influencing the distribution of dust fall such as
wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, rain fall and pressure were
determined. Results showed that deposition flow rates were 38.2. 47.5, 57.7,
44.3, 39.4, 38.2, 42.7 and 5.9 g/m2·month for the sites No., 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively, and were compared with the findings of other investigators
of like industrial areas worldwide. Levels of heavy metal As, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd,
and Hg in the deposited dust fall were 3.30, 26.46, 22.33, 235.00, 4.53 and
3.80 μg/g respectively. Enrichment coefficients of the heavy metals in the dust
fall were found to be significant and reached the values 1.81, 0.90, 0.85,
0.65, 0.41 and 0.35 for zinc, lead, cadmium, copper, mercury and arsenic respectively.
The paper ends with results and recommendations suggesting a methodology to
remediate the investigated area polluted with heavy metals and control measures
for the fertilizer plant to reduce pollution into the surrounding environment.