Determination of heavy metal pollution in soil samples in Sinop province

The concentration values of Cr, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As and Pb to determine of heavy metal pollution in soil samples collected from 88 stations from Sinop province center and Ayancık, Boyabat, Dikmen, Durağan, Erfelek, Gerze, Saraydüzü and Türkeli districts were measured with EDXRF spectrometry (Epsilon5, PANalytical, Almelo, Netherlands). The average concentration value for Cr was found at the Saraydüzü station with a maximum of 358.258 µg g-1 and at the Dikmen station with the lowest of 94.626 µg g-1. For Fe, the highest was found at Saraydüzü station with 58492 µg g-1 and at the Turkeli station with the lowest of 33935 µg g-1. For Ni, it was found to be the highest in Saraydüzü station with 130.962 µg g-1 and the lowest in Dikmen station with 43.697 µg g-1. For Cu, the highest was 62.904 µg g-1 at Saraydüzü and the lowest was 34.823 µg g-1 at Erfelek station. For Zn, the highest was found at Gerze station with 74.683 μg g-1 and the lowest at Dikmen station with 58.081 µg g-1. For As, it was observed at Dikmen station as the highest 7.975 µg g-1, while it was found to be the lowest at 3.727 µg g-1 in Turkeli. The highest concentration for Pb was found at Sinop central station with 24.037 µg g-1 and the lowest concentration was found at Saraydüzü station with 13.861 µg g-1. Pollution parameters for soil samples were calculated from the results of the obtained heavy metal concentrations and it was observed that the pollution was to be generally anthropogenic origin for the study area. As a result, except for Cr and Ni, .the average concentration values of metals are below the permissible limit value for which the World Health Organization (WHO) has determined.