Mapping Cadmium and Nickel Contamination in Soils around Yasouj Cement Factory

Cement manufacturing can be an entrance source for heavy metals to the environment. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the amount of pollution of heavy metals, cadmium and nickel, in the lands around the Yasouj Cement Company. For this purpose, 61 soil samples from zero to 30 cm depth around the plant were randomly sampled. Some of soil properties and total concentration of Cd and Ni were measured. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to examine the normality of the data. In the normal and abnormal data series, kriging and IDW methods were used to prepare zoning maps. The highest concentration of cadmium was observed in the northern part of the plant (11.12 mg/kg). The results of nickel concentration zoning showed that the amount of nickel was highest in the sampled areas. The levels of cadmium in 10% of the samples and nickel in 100% of the samples were higher than the standard values reported by the Department of Environmental of Iran, and this indicates the risk of accumulation of these metals in the soil and pollution of the cement plant. Generally, high concentrations of these metals in soils around the cement factory showed that the pollutants are as a result of the different activities such as material processing in the process of cement production and the movement of vehicles around the cement company. According to these results, it is recommended that environmental preventive measures be taken to reduce the emission of pollutants in the cement production line.