Evaluation of some heavy metals contaminated soils around the Shahid Salimi power plant, Neka, Mazandaran Province, Iran

<p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em></em><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;">One of the most important problems threatening the health of natural resources and, in<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> turn, the food safety of societies is environmental contamination. Heavy metals are considered as<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> the environmental pollutants. The entry of heavy metals into the soil is done through the atmospheric sources and mostly via melting plants, oil refieries and power plants. Due to the mazut<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> consumption in some seasons, power plants are considered as a threat to the soil. This study was<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> conducted with the aim of evaluating contamination of some heavy metals including copper, zinc,<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> cadmium, lead, and nickel in the soils around the Shahid Salimi power plant, Neka located in<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Mazandaran province, north of Iran. One of the greatest threats is the possible contamination of<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> cultivated paddy by pollutant elements. A number of 50 samples from the soil around the power<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> plant were taken from a depth of 0–20 cm within the form of a regular grid and the concentration<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> of the corresponding metals was measured in each of them. The mean background concentration<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> of copper, nickel, lead, zinc, and cadmium was 36.2, 339.8, 90.8, 13.8, and 0.20 mg∙kg, respectively. The maximum mean contamination factor belongs to nickel, lead, copper, zinc, and cadmium, respectively. The frequency of the obtained contamination evaluation classes indicates that<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> the majority of the analyzed samples have a medium level of contamination. Copper, nickel, and<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> lead belong to the class of very high contaminants. By comparing the concentrations of the heavy<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> metals of studied region with quality standard of Iranian soil resources, presented by the Depart<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;">ment of Environment Protection of Iran, it was observed that the concentrations of cadmium, zinc,<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> and copper have been signifiant at the level of 5% based on the standards determined by the<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> agency for agricultural uses, environmental standard and groundwater level. In other words, they<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> do not have conflct with the determined standard at any of the three levels. </span></span></span><br style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" /></span></span></p>