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Characterization of the soil contamination around the former primary lead smelter at Santo Amaro, Bahia, Brazil

There are reports indicating that some children living close to the former primary lead smelter plant in Santo Amaro in Brazil have high Pb and Cd blood content. Previous studies have indicated a significant correlation between the contents of the soil and the flue dust collected in the plant chimne...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental earth sciences 2017-07, Vol.76 (14), p.1-11, Article 470
Main Authors: de Andrade Lima, L. R. P., Bernardez, L. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:There are reports indicating that some children living close to the former primary lead smelter plant in Santo Amaro in Brazil have high Pb and Cd blood content. Previous studies have indicated a significant correlation between the contents of the soil and the flue dust collected in the plant chimney, supporting the hypothesis that the emissions were the main source of the contamination in the region. This work presents a characterization of the Santo Amaro soil close to the lead smelter and provides information to delimit the contamination and to identify the contaminant species. The main results shows that the contamination was enclosed in a region of about 500 m around the plant chimney and the contaminated soil depth was about 20 cm, which was due to the low solubility of the Pb species, their affinity with the organic matter and clay minerals of the soil, and the low permeability of the clay rich soil. The MLA analysis indicated that Pb is hosted in cerussite (>50%), plumbogummite, phosphohedyphane and pyromorphite (15 to 25% each), and Mn-oxides, goethite and clays (
ISSN:1866-6280
1866-6299
DOI:10.1007/s12665-017-6791-6