Investigation of heavy metal contamination and their origin in eastern Azna city, Lorestan province

This study was conducted to investigate the heavy metal contamination and their origin in eastern Azna city in Lorestan province. For this purpose, heavy metals of surface soil samples 113 (5-15 m) were analyzed in the eastern Azna city by AAS flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Origin indices and degree of contamination including enrichment factor (Ef) and its percentage, Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), contamination factor (Cf) were calculated to evaluate soil contamination. Based on the results, the mean concentrations of heavy metals including Zn, Y, V, Sn, Sr, Sc, Pb, Ni, Cu, Cr, Cd, B, Br were 86.9, 51, 161, 14.5, 160, 26, 32.6, 65.4, 34, 22.9, 0.7, 102, 393 mg/kg, respectively, which Br has the highest and Cd the least. Maximum and minimum enrichment factors are also Cd and Br, respectively. The results showed that the studied area is not heavily contaminated with heavy metals but the concentration of some metals is very high in some places and in the case of a natural source of contamination (rock and soil), these sites can be used as potential mining and resource sources.