• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.70-79
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• 2013

Since crude oil contains various pollutants including heavy metals, the environmental impact should be assessed for heavy metals as well as oil itself. In order to estimate the extent of heavy metal contamination, surface sediments were collected at the intertidal and coastal zone around the Herbei sprit oil spill area during December 2007 and January 2008. Organic carbon, sulfur and heavy metals were determined to assess heavy metal contamination in sediments. The crude oils contained C, S, V and Ni, but little toxic metals such as As, Cd, etc. From organic carbon content, the highest contaminated site was estimated that oils contributed to sediments up to 10%, and this site showed high V concentration. Potentially contaminated sediments by crude oil could be differentiated from unaffected sediments through V/Al and Ni/Al ratios, which can be used as indicators of oil contamination even after the oils were fully degraded.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.11-23
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• 2020

The effectiveness of in situ sediment capping as a technique for heavy metal risk mitigation in Hyeongsan River estuary, South Korea was studied. Sites in the estuary were found previously to show moderate to high levels of contamination of mercury, methylmercury and other heavy metals. A 400 m × 50 m section of the river was selected for a thin layer capping demonstration, where the total area was divided into 4 sections capped with different combinations of capping materials (zeolite, AC/zeolite, AC/sand, zeolite/sand). Pore water concentrations in the different sites were studied using diffusive gradient in thin film (DGT) probes. All capping amendments showed reduction in the pore water concentration of the different heavy metals with top 5 cm showing %reduction greater than 90% for some heavy metals. The relative maxima for the different metals were found to be translated to lower depths with addition of the caps. For two-layered cap with AC, order of placement should be considered since AC can easily be displaced due to its relatively low density. Investigation of methylmercury (MeHg) in the site showed that MeHg and %MeHg in pore water corresponds well with maxima for sulfide, Fe and Mn suggesting mercury methylation as probably coupled with sulfate, Fe and Mn reduction in sediments. Our results showed that thin-layer capping of active sorbents AC and zeolite, in combination with passive sand caps, are potential remediation strategy for sediments contaminated with heavy metals.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2011

The mineral phases precipitated in the swamp built for the treatment of the mine drainage of the Dalsung Mine were investigated to reveal the mineralogical changes from schwertmannite to goethite and related behavior of heavy metals. Our XRD results show that most schwertmannite were transformed to goethite except the small portions of the samples in the uppermost part. No significant morphological changes were observed in the samples during mineral transformation by SEM, indicating that this transformation process occurred not from dissolution-precipitation process, but in solid state. Among heavy metals sorbed or coprecipitated in the mineral phases, Pb and Cu concentrations were relatively higher compared with their concentrations in the mine drainage. The relative concentrations of other heavy metals show similar values. The heavy metal concentration in the minerals do not show noticeable differences from uppermost schwertmannite to lower goethite samples, indicating the transformation process without any leaching or additional sorption of heavy metals in the solid state.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.270-276
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• 2010

This study estimated the heavy metal concentrations in octopus (Octopus minor) and conducted a food safety assessment of octopus. Octopus, a benthic cephalopod, was collected from the Seosan intertidal zone on the west coast of Korea. The samples were digested with acids, and then the cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) contents were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The Cd, Cu, and Zn range of concentrations in octopus were 0.06-19 (mean 5.8), 44-1,463 (mean 354.8), and 76-929 (mean 247.9) mg/kg on a dry weight basis, respectively. The concentrations of heavy metals were higher in the internal organs than in the mantle. Of the three heavy metals, copper had the highest concentrations in the internal organs because of the existence of hemocyanin bound with copper in octopus blood, whereas zinc had the highest concentrations in the mantle. No relationship between the concentration of heavy metals and biological parameters (length, weight, and sex) was found. The ratios (I/M) of the heavy metal concentrations in internal organs and mantle were highest for cadmium, although cadmium had much lower concentrations in the internal organs compared with copper and zinc. Considering the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of the three heavy metals and the average intake of octopus per day, all three elements should have no adverse effects on humans.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.556-562
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• 2017

Heavy metals in water systems are being managed on the concentration-based guidelines in Korea. However, various chemicals present in water can interact with heavy metals affecting their toxicity. Such interactions are not considered in the concentration-based guidelines. This study investigated the effect of hardness and coexisting heavy metals on heavy metal toxicity to emphasize the importance of having the effect-based guidelines together with the concentration-based guidelines in water management. The toxic effects of Cd, Zn, or mixtures of Cd and Zn were studied with Daphnia magna as a test species following the standard test method at different hardness conditions (100, 200, and $300mg\;L^{-1}$ as $CaCO_3$). The toxicities of single metal solutions and mixtures showed a decreasing trend with increasing hardness, and this can be attributed to the competition between heavy metals and cations such as calcium ions ($Ca^{2+}$) that cause hardness. The predicted toxicities of the heavy metal mixtures from the single metal toxicity deviated from the measured toxicities, and the predicted toxic effects tend to be greater than the measured toxic effects suggesting that Cd and Zn are in competition. This shows the limitations of using predicted toxic effects and the needs for further studies on mixture toxicities. Overall, this study shows that the management of heavy metals in waters needs to employ the effect-based guidelines together with the concentration-based guidelines.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.27-33
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• 2007

Heavy metals in the surface seawaters and sediments were measured in Jinhae Bay. The high concentrations of heavy metals in the seawaters were found at the stations near the islands. In the sea waters, the mean concentrations of dissolved heavy metals except for Pb were not higher than previous data in this bay. Higher heavy metal contents in the surface sediments were observed at the stations adjacent to the Kojedo or Kadukdo of the Kadoksudo. The contents of Co, Ni, Zn, Cu, As and Cd in the surface sediments showed relatively high correlation coefficients with IL and COD. The order of enrichment factors(EFs) of heavy metals in the sediments was As>Cd>Pb>Zn>Co>Cu>Hg>Ni, and the EFs of As, Cd, Pb and Zn were higher than 1.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.559-567
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• 2020

The abnomal responseses on growth and morphology of attached diatoms by various heavy metals were studied. Ulnaria ulna (Nitzsch) Compère was employed as experimental species and exposed to the five heavy metals such as Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and As with four concentrations (0, 0.01, 0.1, and 2 mg L-1), respectively. The samples of Ulnaria ulna were examined on the changes of cell growth and teratological forms on the 7th, 14th, 21th, and 28th day, respectively, after exposure to the heavy metals. The samples exposed to the highest concentration, 2.0 mg L-1, of all the heavy metals showed the most obvious decreases of growth. The samples exposed to Cd (μ=0.049day-1) and As (μ=0.048day-1) showed the highest decreasing rate of growth (p=0.021(Cd), p=0.002(As)) and the highest morphological changes of diatom valves were also samples exposed to Cd (10.41%) and As (10.13%) (p=0.009 (Cd), p=0.005(As)). In contrast, Pb induced the lowest decreasing rate (μ=0.090 day-1) and the least change in valve morphology (3.31%). The Cd and As showed relatively stronger effects on growth rates compared to Cu, Zn, and Pb. For the percentage of emergence of morphological species by the type, the highest percentage were observed in sampled exposed to type 1 (43.4%) and followed by type 2 (29.1%). The type 2 and 4 were most abundant in samples exposed to Zn and Pb while the type 3 was most abundant in Cd and As. The Cu induced only type 1, suggesting that the frequency of emergence of each type varied among hevay metals. This research suggests that the degrees of abnomal changes on growth rate and valve morphology of Ulnaria ulna can be used as a bioindicater species for heavy metal contamination in freshwater.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.59-72
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of heavy metal concentrations in the blood and urine of the general population. This research had been conducted from April to December 2008, studying 545 residents of Daejeon and Chungcheong Province. Through the concentrations of heavy metals(Pb, Cd, Hg, As, Mn) in the biota samples and questionnaires, the residents heavy metal exposure level and the influential factors according to personal characteristics or lifestyle were evaluated. As to the heavy metal concentration in the blood and urine of the comparing region, were As and Mn statistically significant(p<0.01, p<0.05). Blood lead and urinary mercury concentrations were higher in males than females. The heavy metal concentration for each age group increased blood mercury. The concentration of all heavy metals were higher in the drinkers than in the non-drinkers. Blood lead and mercury concentrations were higher in the smokers than in the non-smokers, but the urinary cadmium, arsenic and blood manganese was higher in the non-smokers than in the smokers. As to the blood lead and urinary cadmium concentration according to the food preference fish showed high concentration. To clarify the factors affecting the heavy metal concentration in biota among subjects multiple regression analysis was conducted. As a results, it turned out that as to lead content in blood, sex, age and smoking have influence on the subjects with explanatory adequacy of 14.0 %. These results demonstrated that the factors affected the concentrations of heavy metals in blood and urine. The results of this study could be used as the foundational data for setting the health risk assessment.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2003

Researches were carried out to investigate the characteristics and concentration of heavy metal elements of stream water through Dongmyoung abandoned metal mine and soil adjacent to the mine. The pH range of water was 5.9∼7.1 that implies the water environment was acidic to neutral. The contents and distribution aspects of heavy metals in water samples varied with geochemical characteristics of element, but the concentration of heavy metals has the tendency of increase closer to the mine in general. The results of soil analysis show that total heavy metal concentration of agricultural soil near mine was far lower than those of ore tailing and dumping site. Therefore, the effects of the abandoned mine on stream water and agricultural products were supposed to be insignificant, particularly because the portion of absorbed carbonates and reducible fractions among total heavy metal concentration was relatively lower than the other. Since, however total heavy metal concentrations of mining site were relatively higher than those of adjacent region, there is a possibility of heavy metal difussion when the chemical environment of the site changes due to migration of surface and underground water. It is suggested that the preventive measures for water and soil pollution by the heavy metals would be considered around the region.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1072-1080
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• 2005

The extraction characteristics of heavy metals(HM) from a contaminated soil at existing lead smelters were investigated with ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid(EDTA), citrate and HCl as washing solutions. EDTA was more effective for Pb than for other heavy metals. As the mol ratio of EDTA/HM increased, the removal efficiency of heavy metals became higher. When the mol ratio of EDTA/HM approached to 6.5, it removed Pb most effectively. Citrate was effective especially in extracting Zn. The removal efficiency of HCl was comparatively high in almost all heavy metals, and at 0.3N concentration it was the highest. After soil washing process by the use of EDTA, the great part of exchangeable fractions and most of heavy metals of weakly adsorbed like carbonate fraction were extracted. For washing with citrate and HCl, four heavy metals showed the similar exchange of chemical partitioning and the exchangeable fractions of Pb which has weakly adsorbed to soil were more increased than before the process. As removal efficiency of citrate washing process depends upon the distribution of non-detrital fractions, so it can be contended that only the amount of non-detrital fractions could be removed from all the heavy metal content. EDTA and HCl could remove most of non-residual fractions in all heavy metals except Zn. As a result of EDTA washing, toxicity characteristic leaching procedure(TCLP) concentration of the processed soil met the USEPA Pb limit of 5.0 mg/L.