Abstract
Environmental stressors, such as heavy metals, significantly threaten human and environmental health. Numerous instrumental techniques are suitable for detecting heavy metals in water, soil, and pore water sediments. However, metal pollution assessment with a Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (MP-AES) has not been routinely adopted in environmental forensics. This study had two objectives. First, MP-AES was utilized to explore and assess the steps of instrumental analysis of water sediments with an MP-AES instrument. Second, water sediment samples were collected to perform a metal pollution assessment and health risk analysis of zinc, copper, iron, manganese, and chromium. We observed that the sampling and sample preparation protocol played a crucial role in our study, while proper method optimization was also essential to receive reliable results. A total of ten different locations were tested to assess the presence of Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, and Cr quantitatively near the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) campus (Fort Myers, FL) and Bonita Bay urban development (Bonita Springs, FL). Enrichment factor (EF), Geo-accumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), and finally, Health Risk assessments, including Carcinogenic Risk assessment (CR), were conducted to assess the level of contamination. The Bonita Bay location included highly contaminated ponds. Besides copper, additional metals such as zinc, iron, manganese, and chromium were also tested. Area 2, FGCU Campus, revealed different zinc, copper, iron, and chromium contamination levels. Three locations, Ponds 3, 5, and 7, were very severely contaminated with zinc, while Ponds 1, 2, 4, and 9 were moderately enriched with this metal. Both Ponds 1 and 4 were found to be severely enriched with copper, while Ponds 2, 3, 5, and 7 were enriched very severely. Minor to moderate manganese enrichment was also found in Ponds 1, 2, 5, and 8, while Ponds 1 and 2 were moderately enriched with chromium moderately severely. Consultation with the local community and an expert revealed that high copper concentrations in Area 1 originated from repeated anthropogenic algicide applications of copper sulfate.
