Accumulation of metals in roadside soil, dust and pine needles in different characteristic traffic areas

Abstract

Heavy metal levels and sources of contamination were investigated in different roadside locations from Ankara and Bursa metropolitan cities in Turkey. A state of the art energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry was utilized in the experiments. Contamination factor and contamination degree were calculated using the obtained results. Contamination degrees were calculated to be 10.9 in highway soil, 20.9 in tunnel dust, 11.1 in parking lot dust, 9.9 in bus stations, 39.0 in the city center, 13.8 in industrial soil, and 7.8 in pine needles. General observation for two cities reveals that the contamination degree of Bursa and Ankara by seven heavy metals was found to be 20.6 and 18.7, respectively. According to the results, Ankara has a considerable degree of contamination (10 <= C-d<20) and Bursa has a high degree of contamination. Contamination was significantly related to Cu, Zn and Pb. Contamination levels of heavy metals from vehicle emission could be related to traffic volume, frequency of vehicle brake stop, vehicle speeds, road type, neighboring environment and meteorological conditions. According to outcome of evaluation, the pollution sources should be minimized in the rates of contamination.