Quantification of Lead Fractions in Contaminated Soil Pedons of Coimbatore Industrial Belts, Tamil Nadu, India

The risk to the environment from contaminated soil can not be assessed by simply considering the total amount of potentially toxic metals within the soil because these metals are not necessarily completely mobile or bio-available. Hence, it is necessary to reduce the fraction of toxic elements that is potentially mobile or bio-available. Total lead varied from traces to 250.0 ppm. The amounts of other lead fractions were 0-1.31, 0-4.81, 0-85.81, 0-89.31, 0-63.52 and 0-50.81 ppm for water soluble, exchangeable and adsorbed, organically bound, carbonate bound, Fe-Mn oxide and residual fraction respectively. Bio-available form of lead is very dangerous and mostly seen in roadside profiles of Ganapathy and Ukkadam areas.