Heavy metal contents in soil of major towns in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia

A total of 63 soil samples from 3 different soil profiles （urban, suburban and industrial areas） in major towns in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia were analyzed for the total concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni and Cr. The soil samples were subjected to acid digestion and the concentrations of total metals extracted were measured or flame atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma - atomic emission spectrometry. According to the result of this study, Pb and Zn concentrations in urban soils are much higher than those of industrial and suburban soils. Total concentrations of Cu and Cr in industrial soil samples are high compared to other two soil profiles and Ni concentrations in the suburban area are slightly higher those of urban and industrial soils. Since Malaysia has not yet to come up with her own soil maximum allowable limit, the heavy metal concentrations were compared with the Dutch maximum allowable limit. The results indicated that the median of heavy metals values in the three different soil profiles is still below the Dutch system limit. From the maximum allowable value obtained from the Dutch system, a contamination/pollution （C/p） index for each site was calculated for the set of these five heavy metals. An advantage of using this method is to make a differentiation between pollution （C/p〉1） and contamination （C/p〈1） status in soils as well as being able to characterize each status into 5 different categories （slight, moderate, severe, very severe and excessive）.

Heavy metal contents in soil of major towns in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia