Gulson Brian, Korsch Michael, Bradshaw Anthony
Department of Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Energy Flagship, Sydney, NSW 1670, Australia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016 Feb 22;13(2):243. doi: 10.3390/ijerph13020243.
Concerns have been expressed that dust from the minerals processing facilities at Karumba Queensland Australia have resulted in elevated lead (Pb) concentrations in rain water tanks. The ores derived from the Century mine some 304 km from the port. High precision Pb isotopic measurements on environmental samples have been undertaken to evaluate the source of Pb in rainwaters and acid digests from roof wipes and gutter wipes. There does not appear to be any relationship between sample location and the processing facility but samples from the area subject to the prevailing winds show the highest contribution of Century Pb. All gutter wipes (82 to 1270 µg Pb/wipe) have contributions of Century ore ranging from 87% to 96%. The contribution of Century ore to five roof wipes (22 to 88 µg Pb/wipe) ranges from 89% to 97% and in the other two samples there is a mix of Century and Broken Hill Pb. Three of the seven rainwater have contributions of Century ore Pb ranging from 33% to 75%. Two of the other four rainwater samples have the highest water Pb concentrations of 88 and 100 µg/L and their isotopic data show Broken Hill Pb contributions ranging from 77% to 80%. The source of the Broken Hill Pb is probably from the galvanized roofing material and/or brass fittings in the rainwater tanks. The discrimination between various sources is only detectable using high precision (204)Pb-based isotopic ratios and not the now common inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS ) data presentations of the higher abundance isotopes (208)Pb, (207)Pb and (206)Pb. Isotopic results for the waters demonstrate that apportioning blame where there is an obvious point source may not always be the correct conclusion. Nevertheless the isotopic data for the gutter wipes indicates that there was widespread contamination from the processing facilities throughout the town.
有人担心，澳大利亚昆士兰州卡伦巴矿产加工设施产生的灰尘导致雨水箱中的铅（Pb）浓度升高。矿石来自距离港口约304公里的世纪矿山。已对环境样品进行高精度铅同位素测量，以评估雨水以及屋顶擦拭物和排水沟擦拭物酸消解液中铅的来源。样品位置与加工设施之间似乎没有任何关系，但受盛行风影响地区的样品显示世纪矿铅的贡献最大。所有排水沟擦拭物（82至1270微克铅/擦拭物）中世纪矿石的贡献范围为87%至96%。世纪矿石对五份屋顶擦拭物（22至88微克铅/擦拭物）的贡献范围为89%至97%，另外两份样品中则是世纪矿铅和布罗肯希尔矿铅的混合。七个雨水样本中有三个世纪矿铅的贡献范围为33%至75%。另外四个雨水样本中的两个铅浓度最高，分别为88和100微克/升，其同位素数据显示布罗肯希尔矿铅的贡献范围为77%至80%。布罗肯希尔矿铅的来源可能是雨水箱中的镀锌屋顶材料和/或黄铜配件。只有使用基于高精度（204）Pb的同位素比率才能检测到不同来源之间的差异，而不是现在常见的高丰度同位素（208）Pb、（207）Pb和（206）Pb的电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）数据呈现方式。水体的同位素结果表明，在存在明显点源的情况下归咎责任可能并不总是正确的结论。然而，排水沟擦拭物的同位素数据表明，整个城镇都受到了加工设施的广泛污染。
