Heavy metals toxicity of surface soils near industrial vicinity: A study on soil contamination in Bangladesh

Abstract

Tangail district is more vulnerable to heavy metals contamination for industrialization in Bangladesh. Present study describe six heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and Pb) in fifteen several sampling locations in industrial vicinity of Tangail district were determined. The concentration of Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and Pb in studied areas soils were observed 0.96–14.04, 0.71– 18.39, 1.02–34.44, 1.2–11.21, 0.44–3.31 and 2.01–28.86 mg/kg, respectively. There is representing a potential risk to the environment for presenting of these heavy metals in soils. This metals are generally toxic to soil and environment. They can persist in the environment for many years and have adverse effect to ecology. Certain indices like contamination factor (CF), enrichment factor (EF), geoaccumulation index (Igeo), pollution load index (PLI), source analysis, principle component analysis (PCA), and toxic units were calculated to determine environmental hazard caused by heavy metals in studied soils. Enrichment factors for the studied metals were in the descending order of Cd > As > Pb > Cu >Ni > Cr. The PLI values for studied metals, causes the Cd contamination in soil of Tangail district. Potential ecological risk (PER) showed low to very high risk to studied vicinity.