A Geochemical Study on the Dispersion of Heavy Metal Elements in Dusts and Soils in Urban and Industrial Environments

도시 및 산업환경 분진 및 토양중의 중금속 원소들의 분산에 관한 지구화학적 연구

The garden soils, main road dusts, residential road dusts, and playground soils/dusts of Seoul, Geumsan, Onsan, and Taebaek areas were analyzed in order to investigate the level of heavy metal pollution by urbanization and industrialization. The soil pH is in the range of 5.48~8.40 and was generally neutral. The color of soils and dusts is mainly Raw Umber to dark greyish Raw Umber. Some samples from Taebaek city, a coal mining area, showed a deep black color due to contamination by coal dusts. Major minerals of the dusts and soils are quartz, feldspars, and micas, reflecting the composition of the parent rocks. However, pyrite was found as a major mineral in the samples of industrial road dusts of Onsan, a smelting area, and resicential road dusts of Taebaek. Thus, the high level of heavy metals in mining and smelting areas can be explained with the sulfide minerals. The mode of occurences of heavy metals in Seoul, a comprehensive urbanized area, were related to the metallic pollutants and organic materials through observation by scanning eletron microscopy. In main road and residential road dusts of Onsan area, Cd, Zn, and Cu were extremely high. Some industrial road and residential road dusts of Seoul area showed high Cu, Zn, and Pb contents, wereas some garden soils and residential road dusts of Taebaek area were high in As content. In general, the heavy metal contents in dust samples were two to three times higher than those in soil samples. Main road dust samples were the most reflective from the discriminant analysis of multi-element data. Cadmium, Sb, and Se in Onsan area, As in Taebaek area, Pb and Te in Seoul area were most characteristic in discriminating the studied areas. Therefore, Cd in smelting areas, As in coal mining areas, and Pb in metropolitan areas can be suggested as the characteristic elements of each pollution pattern. The dispersion of heavy metal elements in urban areas tends to orignate in main roads and deposit in garden soils through the atmosphere and residential roads. The heavy metal contamination in Seoul is characteristic in areas with high population, factory, road, and traffic decsities. Heavy metal contents are high in the vicinity of smelters in Onsan area and are decayed to background levels from one kilometer away from the smelters.