Heavy metal pollution and potential ecological risks in rivers: a case study from southern Italy.
We monitored heavy metal (As, Cd, Hg, and Pb) concentrations in surface water, sediments, and oligochaetes in four major rivers in Calabria (southern Italy) over the course of 1 year. As, Cd, and Pb showed accumulation factors of 10(3)-10(5) for water to sediment and 1-10 for sediment to oligochaetes. Hg showed a water to sediment accumulation factor of 10-100. Finally, Hg concentrations exceeded the Italian quality standard for freshwater in all of the rivers, and As concentrations in sediments exceeded the respective Canadian standard. However, the application of an ecological risk assessment method indicated low risks for all monitored rivers.
Environmental Chemistry, Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy, carmela.protano@uniroma1.it.
Carmela
C
Protano
Loredana
L
Zinnà
Saverio
S
Giampaoli
Vincenzo
V
Romano Spica
Salvatore
S
Chiavarini
Matteo
M
Vitali
D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D007558:Italy; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D019216:Metals, Heavy; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical