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Lead and Molybdenum in Soils and Forage near an Atmospheric Source¹

ABSTRACT

Soil samples collected in 1982 and 1983 from locations near an industrial park consisting of a Mo ore processing plant and a car battery manufacturing industry were analyzed for total and extractable Mo and Pb. Grass samples collected from the same locations were analyzed for total Mo and Pb and three samples were analyzed for total Cu. The objectives were to assess the potential toxicity of Mo and Pb to horses (Equus caballus) and cattle (Bos taurus) and to verify earlier research done in the same general area. Total and extractable Mo and Pb in soils and total Mo and Pb in grasses decreased with increase in distance downwind from the industrial site. The car battery plant ceased operation soon after the 1982 sampling and the extractable Pb in 1983 was much lower than in 1982, indicating a rapid reaction of Pb with soils. The total and extractable Mo in soils were about the same in 1983 as in 1982 even though the Mo industry installed electrostatic precipitators in late 1982 with a claimed 90% reduction of Mo emissions. The Pb, Mo, and Cu contents of grass samples indicated no potential problems of Pb toxicity to livestock, but the Mo concentrations and Cu/Mo ratios showed that cattle in the area would suffer from Mo-induced Cu deficiency (hypocuprosis).

Key Words: Molybdenosis • Hypocuprosis • Copper/molybdenum ratio • Plumbism

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry of the Univ. of Chile, Casilla 233, Santiago, Chile; and from the Dep. of Soil and Environ. Sciences, Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521. Financial support of the U.S. NSF and Chilean CONICYT and Fondo Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica, Project no. 1006-86, is gratefully acknowledged.

² Professor and instructor, respectively, Univ. of Chile; and Professor Emeritus, Univ. of California. The third author is now director of the U.S. Salinity Lab., 4500 Glenwood Dr., Riverside, CA 92501.

Received for publication July 31, 1986.