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Assessment of the environmental conditions of the Sarno river basin (south Italy): a stream sediment approach

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Abstract

The Sarno river basin covers an area of 500 km2 collecting the waters of Solofrana and Cavaiola tributaries. Originally it manly represents a source of livelihood for inhabitants by fishing and transporting goods; currently, the Sarno river, still partially used for irrigation, is affected by an extreme environmental degradation as a result of uncontrolled outflow of industrial waste. Within the framework of a wider geochemical prospecting project aiming at characterizing the whole territory of the Campania region, 89 stream sediment samples with a sampling density of 1 sample per 5 km2 were collected in the river basin and analyzed by means of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry in order to assess the environmental conditions at a regional scale. A GIS-aided technique, based on both the actual distribution of potentially harmful elements and their regional background values, was used to generate the maps of the contamination factors and of the contamination degrees for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn. Furthermore, a factor analysis was performed to assess the nature and the extent of contamination sources for the river sediments. Results showed that the Sarno river basin could be divided in two “environmental status” units: one, low contaminated, corresponding to the hilly and mountain areas, and the second, from moderately to very highly contaminated, corresponding to the economically developed areas of the valley floor characterized by a high population density. This work was developed within a project that aims to investigate the relationships between environmental pollution and human health by analyzing environmental media (stream sediments, water, soil and vegetation) together with human hair of resident population. In this context, the spatial correlation between the extremely compromised environmental conditions of developed areas and the incidence rate of liver cancer in the same area was also explored posing the need of a careful costs/benefits analysis to assess whether the deterioration of the environment, that could adversely affect the conditions of public health, is worth the economic development.

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out as part of a FARO project. Within the project, funded by the University of Napoli Federico II, in addition to stream sediments, other environmental media (water, soil and vegetation) have been collected together with human hair of resident population in order to investigate the relationships between environmental pollution and human health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, 80134, Naples, Italy

    Stefano Albanese, Annamaria Lima & Benedetto De Vivo

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta, dell’Ambiente e delle Produzioni Animali, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, 80055, Portici, NA, Italy

    Pietro Iavazzo & Paola Adamo

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  1. Stefano Albanese
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  2. Pietro Iavazzo
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  3. Paola Adamo
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  4. Annamaria Lima
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  5. Benedetto De Vivo
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Correspondence to Stefano Albanese.

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Albanese, S., Iavazzo, P., Adamo, P. et al. Assessment of the environmental conditions of the Sarno river basin (south Italy): a stream sediment approach. Environ Geochem Health 35, 283–297 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-012-9483-x

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