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Revealing XRF data quality level, comparability with ICP-ES/ICP-MS soil PTE contents and similarities in PTE induced health risk

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Abstract

Portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) was recognized as an efficient and promising tools to study the contents of chemical elements in various media including soils under the impact of anthropogenic activities. However, the quality of data and the equality of chemical elements with other common analytical methods such as aqua-regia extraction vary depending on site, sample conditions, and analysis time. In this study, we examine the adequacy of XRF and ICP-ES/ICP-MS aqua-regia extractable (AR) results obtained for lab-type pretreated samples (N = 15) for Ti, Fe, Mn, Co, V, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Mo, Sr, and As contents in soils under the impact of copper smelter and assess the equality of PTE contents induced health risk. The obtained results suggested that XRF reached definitive data quality level for As, Zn, and Mn and screening (quantitative) data quality level established for Cu, Pb, Fe, Mo, Cr, V, and Ti. Moreover, in some cases (i.e., for Ti) XRF overperformed AR indicating the high efficiency of XRF application when sparingly soluble mineral matrices are presented. At the same time, PTE induced health risk assessment at the established data quality level showed that equality of non-carcinogenic children health risk was observed for As, Zn, Cu, Pb, Mn, and V. The latter indicating the applicability of XRF to generate reliable base for risky sites identification and characterization.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the RA MESCS Science Committee, in the frames of the research project №18T-1E145 entitled “Ecogeochemical investigations as a base of decision making (a case study of the city of Alaverdi)” and State Budgetary Fund.

Funding

This work was supported by the RA MES Science Committee, in the frames of the research project No. 8T-1E145 entitled “Ecogeochemical investigations as a base of decision making (a case study of the city of Alaverdi)”.

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  1. The Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies NAS, Abovian-68, 0025, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia

    Gevorg Tepanosyan, Norik Harutyunyan & Lilit Sahakyan

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  1. Gevorg Tepanosyan
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  3. Lilit Sahakyan
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GT: Conceptualization, investigation, methodology, formal analysis, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. NH: Investigation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. LS: Investigation, methodology, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration.

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Correspondence to Gevorg Tepanosyan.

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Tepanosyan, G., Harutyunyan, N. & Sahakyan, L. Revealing XRF data quality level, comparability with ICP-ES/ICP-MS soil PTE contents and similarities in PTE induced health risk. Environ Geochem Health 44, 1739–1750 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01079-7

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