Lead, Cadmium and Other Toxic Metal Contamination in Various Roadside Ecosystems in Hungary

Abstract

Up to the late 1970s many articles was concerned with identifying the types of metals polluting roadside ecosystems (especially Pb and Cd), with attribution to vehicular traffic and measurement of accumulation with consideration of the possible effects of traffic volume, distance from highways and depth of soil on concentrations of contaminants on vegetation. Lead, cadmium, nickel, and zinc are the main elements contributed to roadside systems in relation to traffic volume. Vehicular traffic cause accumulation of lead, cadmium, nickel, and zinc in plants and higher animals inhabiting roadside ecosystems. Distance from highway edges the degree of contamination of soil and vegetation depending on the element. It proved that significant contamination exists up to 50 m from the highway edge for all elements for traffic volumes of 25.000 vehicles per day and upward. Collecting fodder-plants or grazing animals in the roadside was a widespread practice of the farmers in Hungary, although nowadays it becomes rarely and rarely, as a result of alarm sounded by scientists.