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. 2020 Jun 25;10(1):10359.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67371-1.

Heavy metals and radon content in spring water of Kosovo

Smiljana Marković  1 , Biljana Vučković  2 , Ljiljana Nikolić-Bujanović  3 , Sanja Mrazovac Kurilić  4 , Nataša Todorović  5 , Jovana Nikolov  5 , Anja Jokić  2 , Boban Đokić  2
Affiliations

Heavy metals and radon content in spring water of Kosovo

Smiljana Marković et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Paper presents results of researches carried out on various locations and immediate vicinity of mining and industrial activities of the northern and south-eastern part of Kosovo. Concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, Rn-222, as well as temperature and pH values of natural spring water were measured at 15 measuring sites (that belong to Zvečan, Leposavić and Novo Brdo municipalities), in April-May and September-October 2019. The quantification of heavy metals' content was performed by applying ICP-OES method. In analysed samples a high content of As, Pb, Fe and Ni was found. Carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks due to the content of heavy metals in water were evaluated. Concentration of radon in water was measured by the alpha spectrometric method, and measured values range in the interval from 0.34 ± 0.12 to 341 ± 35 Bq/L. The yearly doses of inhalation and ingestion were determined for the measured concentrations of radon. Mutual correlation by the Pearson correlation coefficient, principal component analysis, cluster analysis and spatial distribution analysis of the researched parameters of sampled water were done. The most expressed mutual dependence of some heavy metals leads to the conclusion that they have the same anthropogenic origin.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Areas of investigated natural spring waters (QGIS 3.12.2 https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Concentrations of heavy metals and radon compared to MAC and in accordance with EU, WHO and the Republic of Serbia’s policies in sampled natural spring waters at 15 measuring sites.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Dendrogram of heavy metals (StatSoft Statistica 8 https://www.statsoft.de/en/statistica/statistica-software).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Spatial distribution of heavy metals and radon (heavy metals in μg/L and Rn in Bq/L) (Golden Software Surfer12 https://www.goldensoftware.com/products/surfer).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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