Suitability of pine bark to evaluate pollution caused by cement-lime dust

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the application of pine bark to indicate the level of air contamination by cement-lime dust and to determine the impact range of cement plants. The pine bark was analyzed in the forested formed around three cement plants in the Świętokrzyski administrative district (South of Poland). The test results were compared with the results gained from the controlled forested areas, free from alkali contamination. The strongly alkali areas show high pHH2O of bark in the range of 7.2-8.5 and low coefficient of change v% = 2.2. The pine bark values of pHH2O in the alkali areas are on average 2.5 times as high as those achieved in the controlled area (natural pH of bark shows the range of 2.8-3.5). On the basis of the measurements of pHH2O there are five alkali-forested spheres determined. The existence of the forest spheres confirms the variable mineral composition of the bark, and first of all the variable content of calcium, magnesium, potassium, aluminium, manganese, zinc and iron as a function of the distance from the emitter and real dust fall.

Keywords

• alkali dust
• pine bark
• ph