Evaluation of the soil mercury pollution induced by the chloro-alkany activities in chemical industrial areas

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to bring information on the evolution of soil pollution with mercury in an area that functioned as a plant for brine electrolysis with mercury. The electrolysis hall was rehabilitated in 2004 and converted into a new production hall with machinebuilding profile. The results show that although the mercury electrolysis plant stopped working for about seven years, the soil near the plant exceeds the intervention threshold. The determination of mercury in these soils samples was achieved by the standard methods (SR EN 1483:2003 and SR EN 1238:2003 - AAS). The measurements have been done on AAS Unicam atomic spectrometer using 10% SnCl2 solution and concentrated nitric acid, from Merck.