Characterization of metals in air and soil near a steel making plant in the North part of Italy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to define suitable tracers that are particularly significant in assessing the impact on the surrounding environment caused by a steel making plant. Design/methodology/approach – The authors focussed on the detection and quantification of inorganic pollutants such as heavy metals in the soil and in the air in the surrounding area of the steel making plant. The presented data, concerning a plant in the North part of Italy, come from an approach that took into account the advantages of different devices and sampling criteria: apart from conventional devices, two kinds of deposimeters have been used (for characterizing either total or wet/dry depositions). Their locations have been chosen taking into account the distance from the plant. Findings – The paper demonstrates that the presence of diffused emissions plays an important (negative) role still today; thus a modern plant should reduce this kind of emission in order to be accepted from the population living in the surroundings. In the analyzed case study, the benefits of adopting the best available technologies can be seen from the temporal variability of the incidence of the plant. Originality/value – The value of the paper is in the support that it can give to decision makers that must manage a steel making plant in an area.