For the study we chose the soil from the playground, which was contaminated
with lead. Average Pb concentration in soil at the depth of 0 – 20 cm was 516
mg/kg. Some point samples exceeded concentration of 10 000 mg/kg. The aim
was to identify the source of contamination and the negative effects on children's
health. From the soil profiles and the heterogeneous concentration of Pb in the
horizontal and vertical direction, was evident, that the contamination is not a
result of immissions from air, but the result of the soil mixing with the remains
of building materials, and residues of car batteries. We carried out the basic soil
analysis: content of carbonates, soil acidity, texture class, the organic matter
content, the cation exchange capacity, and the availability of phosphorus. The
method of sequential extractions, according to Tessier, showed that the largest
proportion of lead is bonded to the organic substance (from 30.61 % to 67.48 %)
and carbonates (from 12.22 % to 62.86 %). Bioavailability of lead was
determined by the in vitro method, established by the U.S. EPA. The absolute
bioavailability was between 25.18 and 56.92%. With the IEUBK model, we
wanted to predict the PbB concentration, and then compare the results to the
measured concentration of Pb in the blood of children. The predicted and
measured concentrations do not match, since the pollution was uneven and we
chose samples with high concentration of Pb for our analysis. We assume that
the intake of lead was minimized since contaminated part of playground was
covered with grass.
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