Abstract:
Lead pollution of soil arising from use of leaded ammunition in shooting ranges has received
considerable attention from researchers, scientists, policy makers and legislatures. This is due
to the adverse health effects associated with exposure to Pb. Eight military shooting ranges
found in Botswana were used in this research project. All the eight shooting range soils were
polluted with Pb with total Pb concentrations in the range 13-38 386 mg/kg. TAB shooting
range soils accumulated the highest concentration of Pb. Most of the shooting ranges studied
had Pb loading of over 1000 mg/kg, far surpasing the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (USEPA) set maximum contaminant limt (MCL) value of 400 mg/kg. Fractionation
studies established that Pb existed mostly in the carbonate form and the X-ray diffraction
(XRD) patterns showed higher proportions of the cerussite (PbCO3) and hydrocerussite
(PbCO3H2O). The SPLP-Pb concentrations in all the eight shooting ranges were higher than
the USEPA set critical limit of 0.015 mg/kg, which indicates possible contamination of water
sources. Determining total Pb concentration in shooting range soils only gives information on
the amount of Pb stored in the soil but does not quantify the pollution risk to the environment.
The amount of Pb deposited in shooting range soil may be in inert form, posing low risk to
biota. To quantify the environmental pollution risk, pollution risk indices have been found to
be suitable for this task. Contamination factor (CF), enrichment factor (EF) and potential
ecological risk index (PERI) provided a good quantitative measure of environmental
pollution risk posed by Pb accumulated in shooting range soils compared to total Pb
concentration. TAB shooting range posed the highest risk to environmental pollution with
highest CF of over 40000 indicating very high contamination and this correlated well with
the amount of Pb deposited into the shooting range. In contrast, TSH shooting range
experienced lower total concetration of Pb compared to MAK shooting range. However, TSH
shooting range displayed a higher contamination factor (CF~9360) compared to MAK with
CF ~ 3585 and corresponding total Pb concentrations of 13309.06 mg/kg and 25,193.19
mg/kg respectively. Similarly, TSH experienced higher enrichment factor (EF) than MAK
with EF ~ 4916 and 2432 respectively.
This means that TSH shooting range posed higher environmental pollution risk than MAK
even though it accumulated lower total Pb concentration compared to MAK. It should be
appreciated that total Pb concentration alone does not give a complete assessment of the
environmental pollution risk posed by Pb in shooting range soils. Total concentration gives a
static assessment of the pollution risk and does not provide insight into the effects of
physicochemical properties of the environment or its holding capacity on total Pbxix
concentration. Therefore, it is important to treat environmental pollution risk as a dynamic
evolution process such that concentration of Pb in the environment would change with
changing soil physicochemical properties and the holding capacity of the environment. The
delayed geochemical hazard (DGH) model was used to show that environmental pollution
risk from Pb is a dynamic process as opposed to static. The DGH model describes the
potential transformation and release of Pb partitioned in the different fractions of the soil that
may be inert but becoming reactive when the conditions of the soil such as pH, moisture and
organic matter become favourable or when the Pb deposited into the soil exceeds the soil
holding capacity. This model was applied to the TAB shooting range which is highly polluted
with Pb. The findings indicated that TAB shooting range may be classified as high-risk area
of Pb DGH with over 65% of Pb capable of being transformed into the mobile and
bioavailable chemical forms. The high Pb deposition into shooting range soils calls for
immediate remedial action. The use of chemical amendments, Pb accumulating plants and
physical techniques such as soil sieving have proven to minimize Pb pollution at shooting
ranges.
Nicholas, S (2024). Quantitative assessment of static versus dynamic environmental pollution risk from lead pollution at shooting ranges. Afribary. Retrieved from https://track.afribary.com/works/quantitative-assessment-of-static-versus-dynamic-environmental-pollution-risk-from-lead-pollution-at-shooting-ranges
Nicholas, Sehube "Quantitative assessment of static versus dynamic environmental pollution risk from lead pollution at shooting ranges" Afribary. Afribary, 30 Mar. 2024, https://track.afribary.com/works/quantitative-assessment-of-static-versus-dynamic-environmental-pollution-risk-from-lead-pollution-at-shooting-ranges. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.
Nicholas, Sehube . "Quantitative assessment of static versus dynamic environmental pollution risk from lead pollution at shooting ranges". Afribary, Afribary, 30 Mar. 2024. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. < https://track.afribary.com/works/quantitative-assessment-of-static-versus-dynamic-environmental-pollution-risk-from-lead-pollution-at-shooting-ranges >.
Nicholas, Sehube . "Quantitative assessment of static versus dynamic environmental pollution risk from lead pollution at shooting ranges" Afribary (2024). Accessed November 23, 2024. https://track.afribary.com/works/quantitative-assessment-of-static-versus-dynamic-environmental-pollution-risk-from-lead-pollution-at-shooting-ranges