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The Use of feral Pigeon's (Columba livia) Feathers as a Monitor for Lead Pollution in Korea  

남동하 (경희대학교 환경응용화학부)
이두표 (호남대학교 자연과학부)
구태회 (경희대학교 환경응용화학부)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology / v.16, no.3, 2002 , pp. 233-238 More about this Journal
Abstract
In this study, we investigated the lead exposure conditions using feathers of pigeons as a monitor for lead pollution from rural (Duckjeok Island), central urban (Seoul), and industrial complex areas (Yochon, Ansan, Ulsan, and Busan) in Korea. The feathers were taken from breast body parts and their lead analysis was performed without washing the feathers to reflect lead particles attached to the surface. The tissue lead concentrations were also compared with levels of atmospheric concentrations. The lead levels in the feathers were increased when the atmospheric lead levels were higher, so that the lead levels in the feathers of the pigeons from the industrial complex area with highest atmospheric lead levels were about four times greater than those of the rural areas. A positive correlation was found between the lead concentration of the pigeon's livers and feathers in rural, and the Yochon industrial complex area with the lowest lead levels. This result means that most of lead in feathers is transported from body tissues during the molting period without attached atmospheric lead. Thus, the feather lead concentrations could be discussed in the light of the metabolism known to occur between the liver and feathers. However, there were not significant correlations in the other areas with higher atmospheric lead levels, and observed relatively higher lead accumulation ratio in feathers than in livers compared with rural and the Yochon industrial complex areas. It is therefore suggested that the former was more exposure conditions and mainly influenced by outer pollutant sources than by the metabolism as the latter.
Keywords
RURAL; URBAN; INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX; CORRELATION;
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