Technology Critical Elements in industrial wastes as the source of soil contamination

The intensive development of industry, especially the mining and metallurgy, automotive and electrical industries, as well as the growing demand, rapid consumption and "ageing" of most products, including electrical/electronic equipment, requiring regular replacement, affects the amount of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTE), including Technology Critical Elements (TCE) in the environment. This preliminary study focuses on the following TCE: Ga, Ge and Tl. The main thing they have in common is that they have not been much studied and the level of knowledge concerning the environmental impact of their use is quite slight. Additionally, content of more common PTE (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Sb, Zn) was determined in order to discover some relationships between these both group. Soil samples were collected from topsoil (0-5 cm) and subsoil (<15 cm) in industrial area influenced by metallurgical slag dump and road traffic. Concentrations of elements were determined with High-Resolution Inductive Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS) after HNO3 microwave digestion. Results revealed that almost all studied elements were in higher amount in the topsoil suggesting the anthropogenic pollution as a source of their content in soil. The research project received funding from the National Science Centre of Poland on the basis of the decision number UMO-2018/29/B/ST10/01522.