Author(s)

Reetu Sharma¹, Shobhana Ramteke¹, Khageshwar Singh Patel^1*, Sudhanshu Kumar², Bighnaraj Sarangi², Shankar Gopal Agrawal², Lesia Lata³, Huber Milosh³

¹School of Studies in Chemistry/Environmental Science, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, India.
²Analytical Chemistry Section, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India.
³Department of Soil Science/Geology, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland.

The coal is contaminated with toxic metals at the trace levels. They are released into the environment during mining, handling and burning of coal. The Korba basin has one of the largest coal exploitation areas in the country. In this work, contamination and sources of toxic metals i.e. Hg and Pb in the air, soil and sediment of the Korba basin, India are described. The concentration of Hg and Pb in the ambient air was ranged from 7.4 - 29 and 7.0 - 585 ng/m³ with mean value of 18 ± 4 and 129 ± 104 ng/m³ in the winter season. The mean concentration of Hg in the soil and sediment was 0.22 ± 0.03 and 0.44 ± 0.08 mg/kg, respectively. The higher concentration of Pb in the environmental samples was observed.

Lead, Mercury, Aerosol, Soil, Sediment

Sharma, R. , Ramteke, S. , Patel, K. , Kumar, S. , Sarangi, B. , Agrawal, S. , Lata, L. and Milosh, H. (2015) Contamination of Lead and Mercury in Coal Basin of India. Journal of Environmental Protection, 6, 1430-1441. doi: 10.4236/jep.2015.612124.