Arsenic in Surface Soils Affected by Mining and Metallurgical Processing in K. Mitrovica Region, Kosovo

Trajce Stafilov, Milihate Aliu and Robert Sajn
Additional contact information
Trajce Stafilov: Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, POB 162, 1001 Skopje, Macedonia
Milihate Aliu: Faculty of Medicine, Prishtina University, Bulevardi i deshmoreve, Prishtina, 10000, Kosovo
Robert Sajn: Geological Survey of Slovenia, Dimiceva ul. 14, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

IJERPH, 2010, vol. 7, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: The results of a study on the spatial distribution of arsenic in topsoil (0–5 cm) over the K. Mitrovica region, Kosovo, are reported. The investigated region (300 km 2 ) was covered by a sampling grid of 1.4 km × 1.4 km. In total, 159 soil samples were collected from 149 locations. Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was applied for the determination of arsenic levels. It was found that the average content of arsenic in the topsoil for the entire study area was 30 mg/kg (from 2.1 to 3,900 mg/kg) which exceeds the estimated European arsenic average in topsoil by a factor of 4.3. Contents of arsenic in the topsoil exceeded the optimum value recommended by the new Dutchlist (29 mg/kg As) in 124 km 2 . The action value (55 mg/kg As) was exceeded in 64 km 2 , with the average content of 105 mg/kg (from 55 to 3,900 mg/kg As).

Keywords: arsenic; soil; pollution; K. Mitrovica; Republic of Kosovo (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/11/4050/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/11/4050/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:7:y:2010:i:11:p:4050-4061:d:10283

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().