A Study On The Concentration Distribution Of Airborne Heavy Metals In Major Industrial Complexes In Korea

This paper reports the results of field evaluation to determine the levels of heavy metals in major industrial complexes in Korea over a seven year period (2007 similar to 2013). The measurement of heavy metal was conducted using quartz fiber filter sampling and ICP-AES analysis. In order to validate the analytical performance of these methods, studies were also carried out to investigate data quality control (QC) parameters, such as the method detection limit (MDL), repeatability, and recovery efficiencies. The average concentrations of total suspended particulates (TSP) for the nine industrial complexes in Korea were 104 similar to 169 mu g/m(3), which was higher than other industrial complexes and urban areas. The Sihwa and Banwol industrial complexes were shown to be the biggest contributing sources to high TSP emission (159 mu g/m(3) and 169 mu g/m(3), respectively). The concentrations of heavy metals in TSP were higher in the order of Fe>Cu>Zn, Pb, Mn>Cr, Ni, As and Cd. It was observed that Fe was the highest in the Gwangyang and Pohang steel industrial complexes. The concentrations of Zn and Pb were high in Onsan, Sihwa and Banwol industrial complexes, and this was attributed to the emission from the nonferrous industry. Additionally, Cr and Ni concentrations were high in the Sihwa and Banwol industrial complexes due to plating industry. On the other hand, Ulsan and Onsan industrial complexes showed high Cr and Ni concentrations as a response to the emission of metal industry related to automobile. The correlation analysis revealed the high correlation between Cr and Ni in plating industry from Sihwa and Banwol industrial complexes. Adding to this, components related to coal combustion and road dust showed high correlation in Pohang and Gwangyang industrial complexes. Then Onsan and Ulsan industrial complexes showed high correlation among components related to the nonferrous metals.