Heavy Metal Concentrations in Soils of the Daegu and Ulsan Area
The aim of this study was to analyze the local distribution of the heavy metal concentration in Daegu and Ulsan which were divided into the residual areas, the traffic dense areas and the industrial areas.
The Inductively Coupled Plasma(ICP) was used to analyze heavy metals, such as As, Cr, Hg, Zn, Cd, Pb, Cu and minor metals, such as Fe, Si, Mg, Ca, Al, Na, K.
The results of this analysis showed that the content of heavy metals which was classified by districts in Daegu and Ulsan was the highest in the industrial areas followed by the traffic dense areas and the residual areas.
Compared to the level of heavy metals of national and local soil survey network in 2003, contamination of heavy metals in Daegu was lower than national average. However, the content of Cd, As, Zn in Ulsan was respectively 13.38 times, 472 times and 2.65 times higher than national average contamination.
In addition, compared to the soil pollution level of the environmental protection law, contamination of all areas in Daegu was lower. But the content of As at the industrial areas in Ulsan was 10.71 times higher than standard of soil pollution and 4.28 times higher than standard of measures against soil contamination.