Levels and distribution of chemical elements in house dust from the area of an abandoned Pb-Zn smelter in North Macedonia

Abstract

The content of 41 chemical elements (Ag, Al, As, Au, Ba, Br, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Hf, In, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nd, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Sm, Sr, Tb, Th, Ti, Tm, U, V, W, and Zn) was determined in attic dust, household dust and soil samples collected from 33 houses in the area of the town of Veles, North Macedonia. Silver, Cd, Cu, Li, P, and, Pb were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma - atomic emission spectrometry while the other elements were analyzed by neutron activation analysis. The study area has been continuously exposed to high amounts of potentially toxic elements due to the emission from an abandoned Pb-Zn smelter plant. In this study, attic and household dust together with soil samples collected from the yards of the houses were used to assess the level of historical and present air contamination by potentially toxic elements. It was found that the contents of Ag, As, Cd, Cu, In, Pb, Sb, Se, and, Zn in dust samples represented an anthropogenic association of elements, with very high contents in samples collected from the town of Veles, which is close to the Pb-Zn smelter, compared with those collected from the mountainous area.

Keywords:

• Potentially toxic elements
• Attic dust
• Household dust
• soil
• smelter

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Author contributions

TS and RŠ: Conceptualization and supervision of the project; TS: writing of the manuscript. TS, AP, and BD: Majority of the experiments. RŠ: Statistical processing and preparation of maps; All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.