TITLE:
Evaluation of Some Radioactive Materials and Heavy Metals in Marine Environment of Alexandria Coastline, Egypt
AUTHORS:
E. R. Atta, Kh. M. Zakaria
KEYWORDS:
Mediterranean Sea, Water, Sediment, Radioactive Materials, Heavy Metals, Sediment Quality Guidelines
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.17,
December
15,
2014
ABSTRACT: The
present work is carried out to obtain quantitative information of some natural
radioactive materials and heavy metals in water and sediment samples along the
Alexandria Coastline, as a step to construct the baseline map of the background
radioactivity level in the Egyptian environment and also as a base data to
assess the future physicochemical changes of surface coastal water and sediment
in the studied area. The distribution of natural gamma emitting radionuclides
such as 238U, 232Th and 40K has been
established by gamma spectrometry. The results show that the area of Alexandria
coast is affected by the existence of high back-ground radiation from the
Rashid coast at the eastern side which has high levels of radioisotope
concentrations due to black sand deposits which are dominant in this area. The
absorbed dose rate (D, nGy·h-1), annual effective dose equivalent, external
hazard index (Hex) and representative level index (Ir) of
the investigated radioactive materials were calculated. The concentration of Pb2+,
Cd2+, Ni2+, Mn2+, Cu2+, Co2+,
Zn2+ and Cr3+ ions has been determined using Atomic
Absorption Spectroscopy. The total dissolved solids (TDS) in water
samples ranged from 33,000
mg/l to 42,000 mg/l, the salinity ranged from 37.9% to 40.5% and pH
ranged from 7.6 to 7.9. Some of the
sediment quality guidelines are calculated and they are the metal pollution
index (MPI), the contamination factor (CF), degree of contamination (Cdeg),
and Pollution load index (PLI).