Environmental Risk Assessment Studies of Heavy Metal Contamination in the Industrial Area of Kattedan, India—A Case Study

ABSTRACT

Kattedan is an industrial area near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, contaminated with high concentrations of metals attributed to industrial sources (battery manufacturing, metal plating, textile and pharmaceuticals production and others). Twelve different locations in the Kattedan industrial area were assessed for concentrations of metals (Zn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Co, Pb, Hg, Cd, and As) in soils, waters, and vegetation. Application of sequential extraction technique for the soils revealed relatively high percentages of Zn, Cu, and Cr associated with mobile fractions, and correspondingly high concentrations of Zn, Cr, Cu, and Pb in forage grass samples and a high degree of bioavailability to humans. Human exposure assessment revealed high concentrations of Pb, Zn, and Cr in blood and urine samples from the residents of the study area showing a direct pathway and a potential for toxicological hazard due to heavy metal pollution.

Key Words:

• KIDA
• metal contamination
• toxicity
• risk assessment
• pathway
• Hyderabad
• India.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to the Director, IICT, for his encouragement and providing research facilities and for permitting us to publish this work. The authors are thankful to Dr. M. R. P. Reddy, Scientist, C-MET, for extending the support for inter-laboratory testing. Two of the authors (N. S. Chary and C. T. Kamala) thank the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India, for providing fellowship for carrying out this work. The authors are also thankful to Dr. C. K. Mohan Rao and Mr. Benny Mathews for providing us with the clinical samples and helping us in collecting the data through the questionnaire. We thank Mrs. C. Aparna, Research Fellow, JNTU, for her help in preparation of the Location Map. The authors are also thankful to Prof. P. N. Rao, Retired Professor, Nagarjuna University, and Amy Oen, Researcher, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, for their suggestions in improving the quality of the article.

Notes

^$ Ashwathanarayana (1999)

^# McBride (1994)

*Alloway (1990)

^@Prashanthi et al. (1997a, b).

*Prashanthi et al. (1997a, b); Aparna (2001); Rani (2001); Yadaiah et al. (2001).

^# Kloke et al. (1984)

^$ Alloway and Ayres (1993).

^‡ Abbasi et al. (1998)

^£ Iyengar (1984).