Urban atmospheric vanadium

Table V. Atmospheric Vanadium Concentrations of Urban Regions...

Environmental studies [17] of urban airsheds in several areas of the country have shown that high levels of atmospheric vanadium oxide are associated with industrialized areas, especially those areas where fossil fuels are burned or where vanadate steel is being produced. In addition, vanadium has been shown to exhibit increased tissue levels in fish and other marine animals associated with oil rigs in the Santa Barbara basin of the United States [18]. Blotcky et al. [19] determined the vanadium content in shrimp, crab, and oyster from four ocean sites off and near Galveston Island, Texas. They found that the vanadium content was greater in marine biological samples taken in waters near industrialized areas as compared to samples taken in waters near the nonindustrialized sections. Speciation of the vanadium is very important since the two oxidation states, i.e., IV or V, have different nutritional and toxic properties [14]. Orvini et al. [20] applied a preirradiation speciation method to freshwaters from the Italian Ticino and Po rivers and found out that vanadium was present in various tetravalent cationic and pentavalent anionic as well as in natural complexed forms. 

Some of the metals found predominantly as particulate matter in polluted atmospheres are known to be hazardous to human health. All of these except beryllium are so-called heavy metals. Lead is the toxic metal of greatest concern in the urban atmosphere because it comes closest to being present at a toxic level mercury ranks second. Others include beryllium, cadmium, chromium, vanadium, nickel, and arsenic (a metalloid). 

After emission, a substantial proportion of the amount discharged in exhausts is quickly deposited in the larger lead-containing particles within 100 m of roadways. Lee and Goranson, 1972 [202] have determined the particle-size distribution in the atmosphere in six urban areas in the USA and they found that particles of diameter less than 1 pm constituted over 50 per cent of the weight of suspended matter in every area. Lee et al, 1972 [203] also studied the relationship between the concentrations of copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, vanadium and zinc, and the size of the particles with which these metals are associated in the atmosphere in the same areas, and it was found that lead was concentrated in the smaller particles. With the exception of lead, vanadium... 

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