Potential risks posed by heavy metals in the Brisbane River sediment

What is it about?

A weak acid extraction technique was used to mobilize the loosely bound metals in estuary sediment samples. Application of pollution index (PI) and modified pollution index (MPI) revealed that the sediment range from unpolluted to heavily polluted while ecological risk index (RI) classifies the sediment as posing low ecological risk modified ecological risk index (MRI) suggests considerable to very high ecological risk.

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Why is it important?

The growing public and environmental health concerns of heavy metals in the environment have led many countries to implement various programs and regulations to monitor, control or restrict their release into the environment. Anthropogenic activities have been found to be culpable for the elevation of heavy metal concentrations in the environment. However, heavy metals are also found naturally in the earth crust. Therefore, it is very important for any monitoring program to distinguish between anthropogenic and natural sources of metals.

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