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Characterization of anthropogenic contaminants in urban soils around Budgebudge current generating station of West Bengal, India

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Abstract

Anthropogenic magnetic particles (AMPs) in soils originating from industrial activities are uprising environmental problems due to their harmful impact on human health. Characterization of such AMPs is needed to understand their sources which are not well described in many Indian cities. In this paper, soil around the Budgebudge current generating station (BCGS) is used to isolate industrial hotspots from natural ones for their magnetic mineralogy and morphology as a factor of AMPs concentration. The difference between AMPs and natural components has been studied by looking at superparamagnetic (SP) grain’s contribution in soils since the general assumption is that natural soils comprises higher SP grains than contaminated ones. Considerably the industrial areas (~ 5 km distance from BCGS) comprise the utmost concentration of magnetite with a moderate contribution of SP grains indicating their onset from BCGS via environmental mixing processes. Residential areas contain a low concentration of magnetite with a higher SP grain contribution. The present study illustrates that SP grain magnetic particles do not exhibit substantial relation with the highest AMPs concentration in soils. The abundance of irregularly (pedogenic) shaped particles in residential areas and spherical-shaped particles (AMPs) around BCGS and their mineralogical composition emphasizes our observations. The present study supports the contention of combined use of magnetic concentration parameters and the contribution of SP grains whenever inadequate background information affects environmental magnetic analysis, which can be utilized as a proxy for obtaining conventional ideas about existing pollution levels and structure categorized sampling strategies.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, for the scope of research and thank the Director, CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad, for providing the laboratory facilities. S. Mondal thanks the University Grant Commission (UPE II Scheme) for the financial support during fieldwork. R. Maity is grateful for fellowship to RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan) 2.0 and Saurodeep Chatterjee for his guidance during the work. The authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and recommendations that improved the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700032, India

    Rimjhim Maity, Supriya Mondal & Debesh Gain

  2. CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad-500007, India

    Mamilla Venkateshwarlu & Mahesh Kapawar

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  1. Rimjhim Maity
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Contributions

RM conceptualized and designed the study. Sample collection was carried out by RM, SM, and DG. Sample analysis was done by RM, SM, MV, and MRK. The original draft of the manuscript was prepared by RM. Reviewing and editing of the manuscript was performed by all the authors. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rimjhim Maity.

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Maity, R., Mondal, S., Venkateshwarlu, M. et al. Characterization of anthropogenic contaminants in urban soils around Budgebudge current generating station of West Bengal, India. Arab J Geosci 15, 1428 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10724-z

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