Trace‐metal behaviour in the vicinity of a copper smelter

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Abstract
Atmospheric Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd concentrations in the immediate vicinity of a copper smelter were studied. Measurements show that these concentrations are ten times as high as those determined at other sampling sites, thus contributing to the increasing content of trace metals in all environmental media. Analyses were carried out on the behaviour of the metals under study in the technological process. The results show that with the increasing process temperature the Pb, Cd, and Zn enrichment of the emitted dust also increased. Then, the accumulation coefficients in soil for the trace metals were calculated. In evaluating Cu, Zn and Pb contents in water and plants a distinction was made between the amounts which are taken up from the soil and those reaching the plants or water from the air. Cu, Zn, and Pb migration from soil to surface waters is over three times higher than that from the atmosphere. Soil and atmospheric air are responsible, almost to same extent, for the contamination of plant‐life by Cu, Pb and Zn.