engleski

Geochemistry of kindergarten playground soils in Zagreb, Croatia

Potentially toxic elements (PTE) guidance values in soils in child-care centers and playgrounds have not been developed in Croatia. An evaluation of soil concentrations of PTE for 150 kindergarten centers and 50 playgrounds in Zagreb showed that Pb, Hg, P, (Cu) Sb, Ag (Au) can be attributed to anthropogenic pollution signature. Road dust contribution and paint containing lead seems to be the major sources of PTE to the playground soils. Playgrounds associated with day-care centers in Zagreb are located at 191 sites and host 28.000 children. Potentially toxic elements (PTE) as urban soil contaminates of environmental concern have been targeted by numerous studies in the past 20 years (KABATA & MUKHERJEE 2007). Urban soils present a media that greatly affect health of young children due to their contamination by certain heavy metals from different sources (OTTESEN et al., 2008). The playground soils located in the central and former industrial sites in Zagreb are enriched with Pb, Hg, Sb, and Zn compared with sites located in new residential and former rural surroundings of Zagreb. The PCA extracted 5 major components responsible for variation in elemental distribution. The first factor contains a signal from the influence of lithological bedrock composition (Ca, Mg, Al, Fe, Th, Co, Cr, Ni), the second shows the Pb, Hg, P, (Cu) Sb, Ag (Au) attributed as an anthropogenic pollution signature. The significant inputs of anthropogenic origin are present in 20% of the playgrounds. Most of the analyzed old paints from playing equipment were identified as lead-based paint (Pb content >0, 5%). In 16 the composite topsoil contained more than 100 mg/kg Pb. Lead, Hg, As, Zn, Cd and Cu concentrations in topsoils were found to be higher than those defined by health-based soil quality criteria at 10% of the child-care playgrounds. The association of Sb with Pb (r=0.8) in soils indicates that a large part of lead in the soil is derived from road dust that can be attributed to wear of brake linings (Månsson, et al., 2009). The 206Pb/207Pb ratios of analysed soils with elevated Pb concentraions and paint chips have ratio values of <1.11 which is mainly attributed to petrol lead influence.

PTE; PCA; led paint; playground soils

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