Presented By Riyadul Islam

The investigation was made to understand the heavy metal contamination of soil and vegetation in the vicinity of industries around Dhaka city. The concentration of total Cd,Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb and Zn ranged from 0.1-1.8,28-217,106-577,25112,17-99 and 53-477 mg/kg soil respectively among the industrial sides. The concentration of total Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb and Zn is decreased with increasing distance from the disposal point. The concentration of most heavy metals were higher in the soil and vegetable samples of tannery area.

 Industrial effluents and municipal waste contain

high amount of heavy metals such as As,Cd,Cr,Cu,Fe,Hg,Mn,Ni,Pb and Zn. Some heavy metals are essential in trace amounts for plants and animal(Zn,Cu,Fe,Mn,Ni). But.higher concentration of these metal in the ecosystems can be toxic to plants and cause health problem to us. In Bangladesh,untreated industrial wastes and effluents dischare in the vicinity of industries pollute soils,surface water and ground water.

 four sampling sites were selected at the vicinity

of different types of industry. Tannery industrial area at hazaribagh,ceramic and textile dying industries at Tongi and sulphuric acid producing industrial area at Rupgonj. The common agricultural practice in the surrounding areas is paddy cultivation.Also grasses,water hyacinth and arum were seen. Total 53 samples were collected from the depth of 0-5 and 5-15cm around the four industrial sites. 10 samples were collected from 5-15cm depth of 3 industrial sites to see Anthropogenic sources of heavy metal contamination(mixing of heavy metal in the deeper soil by agricultural practice).

 Soil samples were collected from excavation pit

and Plant samples were collected within 5sq.m of soil sampling area.
pH range 5.2-7.6 OC% range 2.0-4.9 CEC cmol/kg 9.6-38.9 Type of plant sample Grass,hya cinth,rice

Industria NO. Of l area samples Tannery 12 soil,9 plant

Ceramic

14 soil,6 plant
14 soil,6 plant 16 soil,5 plant

4.8-7.6

0.87-2.97

12.2-24.1 Rice at flowering stage

11.9-23.1 Arum, grass 11.5-4.8 Rice at flowering stage

Textile dying Sulphuric acid plant

5.2-7.7 4.6-7.2

1.36-7.99 0.79-1.70

 After processing the samples soil pH,EC,soil OC,cation

exchange capacity(CEC) and exchangeable cations(Ca,Mg,K) were determined using standard methods. The total concentration of Cd,Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb and Zn of soils were measured after digestion with conc.HNO3HClO4(5:1) acid. The available Cd,Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb and Zn content of soils were extracted by 0.005 M DTPA-extractent. In case of determining plant content of heavy metal,wet oxidation of the samples was made with HNO3-H2SO4-HClO4(10:4:1) Statistical analysis of the results(correlation coefficient,regression analyses,etc) was done by Minitab program.

 The highest concentration of total and DTPA

extractable Cd,Mn,Ni,Pb and Zn were found in soils of tannery area and the lowest concentration were found in ceramic indutrial area. this might be due to discharging liquid waste,flocculated sludges and other solids with excessive heavy metals coming from different tanning processes. The highest concentration of Pb in the tannery area may cause Pb poisoning to 20,000 slum living people and children who live around waste discharging channel. The highest concentration of total and extractable Cu found in the textile industrial area which is due to the effluents and solid wastes of dying industries.

Metals name

Tannery ind. area

Ceramic ind. area

Textile dying ind. area

Sulphuric acid ind. area

soil
Cd Cu Mn Ni Pb Zn

veget soil ation

veget soil ation

veget soil ation

veget ation

0.87- 0.58- 0.11- 0.45- 0.24- 0.38- 0.42- 0.501.80 0.83 0.58 0.70 0.58 0.58 0.64 0.68 35217 218577 47112 5.515.2 164229 2856 106268 7.915.4 88186 7.310.6 29357 143473 3765 10.8- 4116.9 74 72270 7.29.2 241341 59104 4.55.5 127194 7.611.3

6.90- 2513.8 90

20.5- 13.3- 17.1- 12.8- 33.0- 10.1- 27.4- 17.189.7 44.7 39.4 19.6 89.6 15.9 40.8 20.6 73477 98244 106465 35.9- 5384.0 354 32.7- 10297.6 147 31.950.0

 Concentration of total Cd,Cu,Ni,Pb and Zn were

found above the natural background level in all industrial sites with few exceptions in the ceramic industrial sites. Cd content was found in the group of tolerable level in all industrial sites(<0.3 mg/kg).
Name of industrial area Metal in the group of background level Metals in the group of tolerable level Cd, Pb Metals in the group of in excess of tolerable level Cu,Ni and Zn

Tannery area

Ceramic industrial
Textile dying Sulphuric acid producing

Cd, Cu and Pb
Cd and Pb Cd, Cu,Pb and Zn

Ni and Zn
Cu,Ni and Zn Ni

 Total concentrati of Cd,Cu,Mn and Zn in the soils

of tannery and textile dying area were found to decrease with the increasing distance from the disposal point. This means.metals have been accumulating in the soil through these industrial operations. Butdecreasing tendency of concentration with distance was not noticeable in soils of ceramic and H2SO4 producing industries. The metal content in the sulphuric acid producing industrial area is due to discharging of waste materials in the land and localized acid rain. Low pH value in the soils of sulphuric acid producing area increase the solubility of metal which lead to incresed availability of the heavy metals for plant uptake and cause metal toxicity.

 The Cd contents in vegetations ranged from

0.38-0.83 mg/kg among the industrial sites. Cu concentration among the sites were similar except the H2SO4 producing industrial site. The highest concentration of Mn,Pb,Zn and Ni was found in the vegetation sample of the tannery area. Concentration of Zn(98-244mg/kg) and Pb(13.2844.7mg/kg) in the vegetations of tannery area is in the range of tolerable to above the toxic limit. Higher concentrations of Cd,Cu,Ni and Zn in the grass and water hyacinth in tannery area may be due to the exposure of these plants to the heavy metals for longer period .or there might be different mechanism of absorbtion of heavy metals by these plants.

 A number of metals were observed were

significantly(p<0.01) correlated with each other. Cd,Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb and Zn showed highly significant(p<0.01) positive correlation with their total and DTPA-extractable contents in soils.
Relationships between the heavy metals in the vegetations and in the soils of the industrial areas

In correlation matrix,plant concentrations of

Cu,Mn,Pb and Zn were significantly correlated with their total and extractable contents in soils. The positive relationships among the soil and plant content metals might be a cause of metal toxicities to both plants and animals through their entry into food chain. Poor and negative correlation might be due to different soil types,nature of plants,extent and types of industrial effluents,etc.