Heavy metal contamination of surface soils in southern part of Bangladesh

To assess contamination levels of the heavy metals, concentrations of Sc, Cr, Fe, Co and Zn in surface soils at various locations of southern part of Bangladesh were determined by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) technique. In this study, concentrations of the Sc, Cr, Fe, Co and Zn elements in surface soil were found in the range of 2.56-16.7 mu g/g, 12.9-112 mu g/g, 6911-48642 mu g/g, 2.59-22.7 mu g/g and 37.7-322 mu g/g, respectively. The measured concentrations were compared with average concentration of worldwide soil and observed that most of the samples contain much higher concentration of heavy metals except Cr and Fe. Analysis based on soil utilization type showed that the samples collected from roadside and residential area experienced much higher metal contamination than open area. A significant correlation was observed between Cr-Fe, Cr-Co, Cr-Sc, Fe-Co, Fe-Sc and Co-Sc.