Multi-year monitoring of atmospheric dust fall as a sink for lead in an agro-industrial and petrochemical city of Argentina. Geo-accumulation and ecological risk assessment

SAFE, YASMIN L.; PALENZONA, MANUELA; LUCCHI, LEANDRO D.; DOMINI, CLAUDIA E.; PEREYRA, MARCELO T.

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOCHEMISTRY AND HEALTH

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2023

0269-4042

A multi-year monitoring data set of potentially harmful elements (PHEs), which are present in the chemical composition of atmospheric settleable particulate matter (SPM) in the urban, industrial and port areas in Bahía Blanca, was studied in order to assess potential ecological risk. The selected PHEs were metal elements of local and regional environmental importance (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn). Seventeen sampling campaigns were carried out between April 2013 and September 2019. After the microwave-assisted acid digestion of samples, the total contents of the PHEs were determined by ICP-OES. The annual dry deposition rate, the indexes associated with the potential ecological risk (RI) and the degree of geo-accumulation (Igeo) of each PHE were calculated. The results indicated that: (a) there are 3 groups (I, II, III) of PHEs with differentiated concentration levels, ranked I (Pb > Zn > Cu) > II (Cr ≈ Ni) > III (Cd) (p