Radionuclides and heavy metals in soil, vegetables, and medicinal plants in suburban areas of the cities of Belgrade, and Pančevo, Serbia

Abstract

The con tent of radionuclides (40K, 238U, 226Ra, 232Th, and 137Cs) and heavy met als (As, Cd, Cu, and Pb) was de ter mined in sam ples of soil, veg e ta bles and me dic i nal plants col lected in the pe riod 2007-2017, from two sub ur ban ar eas of Bel grade – the mu nic i pal i ties of Palilula and Sur~in, and Pan~evo – the 'Dr Josif Pan~i}' In sti tute for the Study of Me dic i nal Herbs. Dur ing the re search pe riod, ac tiv ity con cen tra tion of 137Cs in soil de creased from 16 Bqkg–1 to 3.9 Bqkg–1 (Palilula, Bel grade) and from 18 Bqkg–1 to 12 Bqkg–1 (Sur~in, Bel grade). Mean ac tiv ity con cen tra tions of nat u ral radionuclides in the soil were higher than the global av er -age. Trend for heavy metal lev els, ac cord ing to the av er age con cen tra tions found in the soil, were as fol lows: Cu >Pb >As >Cd for Palilula, Pb >Cu >As >Cd for Sur~in and Dr Josif Pan~i}' In sti tute, Pan~evo. The ob tained re sults in di cate that the in dus trial pol lu tion has no im pact on food pro duc tion in the study area and that the main anthropogenic source of radionuclides and heavy met als in soil are min eral phos pho rous fer til iz ers, of ten used in ag ri -cul tural fields.