Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COAL PREPARATION AND UTILIZATION
Volume 31, Issue 2, Pages 61-77Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/19392699.2010.534746
Keywords
Cluster; Coal; Enrichment; Human health; Principal component; Trace element
Categories
Funding
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, and Government of India [NWP-0017]
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The entire coal beneficiation process, starting from unloading the raw coal to the loading of processed coal, liberates particulate matter, which would ultimately settle on the soil at varying distances. This is likely to affect soil quality and possibly the health of the inhabitants. Soil samples collected from the sites of two coal beneficiation plants (CBPs), located in Dhanbad, India, and a control (CNT) site were analyzed for some trace elements like Cr, V, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Rb, Zr, Ba, Th, and U. The results showed that the CBP soils were enriched in Cr and Ni. In the absence of other sources of industrial pollutants, the enrichment of Cr and Ni is attributed to their input from the CBPs. However, the accumulation of Cr and Ni did not appear to reach health-risk levels, as the calculated lifetime human intake levels through different exposure pathways from the soil are within the USEPA's reference dose (RfD). Multivariate analyses like principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis showed that the association between the trace elements in CBP soils is distinctly different than the CNT, thereby suggesting a different origin of some of the trace elements in CBP soils.
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