Determination of Heavy Metals in Agricultural Soil Adjacent to Functional Brick Kilns: A Case Study of Rawalpindi

Abstract

Brick making is one of the growing industry of Pakistan which had great contribution in the development of country. In order to meet the demands of urbanization the industry's production rate is also increasing. This has lead to the combustion of enormous amount of coal and other materials thus deteriorating the quality of environment. Brick kilns in developing countries are considered as one of the important source of pollution. Heavy metals are one of the reported pollutants from brick kilns and are highly persistent, non-biodegradable in nature and are serious threat to the environment. The aim of the current study was to assess the level of heavy metals in the soil and vegetation around three selected brick kilns sites in Rawalpindi. The study was conducted from October 2013 to May 2014. The concentration of heavy metals in the soil and plants were determined with standard protocols. The investigated concentration of heavy metals in plants and soils were compared with the WHO standards. It was found that the concentrations of all studied metals were above the permissible limits especially at agriculture soil located adjacent to brick kilns. However, at few sites the concentrations were found below the permissible limits. The results of study showed that brick kilns have great potential of deteriorating the quality of environment so, it is recommended that the monitoring of soil and plants around brick kilns should be carried out on regular basis in order to develop control measures to prevent the impacts of heavy metals pollution.