Biomonitoring of heavy metals using soil near Teluk Ewa cement plant: Preliminary study

Biomonitoring technique has been used to obtain quantitative information on the quality of the environment by using soil as its agent. Soil samples were collected on the 12 December 2010, dried in oven, homogenized, grinded and sieved (63μm) and digested with nitric acid and perchloric acid in microwave digestion. Five (5) elements were determined (Co, Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb) and the digested samples were analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The concentration of cobalt, cadmium, copper, lead and nickel were 1.52–3.8 mg/kg, 0.0014–0.066 mg/kg, 3.88–15.9 mg/kg, 3.8–11.7 mg/kg and 16.1–76.9 mg/kg respectively. Result showed that the distribution of heavy metals is slightly higher close to cement plant and decreased as the distance farther. The enrichment factor data indicated that cobalt, cadmium copper, lead and nickel were undergone minimal enrichment.