Contamination at Todos os Santos Bay

Abstract

Todos os Santos Bay (BTS) is the second largest coastal bay in Brazil, which occupies an area of 1,233 km2 and 184 km of coastline perimeter. The BTS includes an urban area, including Salvador, with more than 3 million inhabitants and an extensive industrial area. This paper focuses on the chemical contamination of the atmosphere and marine coastal system of BTS, discussing the main sources of different compounds found. In several regions of the BTS atmospheric particulate matter, suspended particulate matter, algae, sediment and biota are enriched with trace elements (As, Cd, Pb, Zn, Hg, Mn, Co, Cu, Sb, among others) and organic contaminants (PAH and n-alkanes) at concentration levels above those considered "natural". Therefore, anthropogenic contributions (industrial discharges and domestic oil and gas extraction, power generation processes, vehicular emission and port activities) contributed to the environmental levels of contaminants studied to date.