Lead Concentrations of Pigeon's Tissue as Indicator of Lead pollution in Air and Soil

Byun, Yung Woo; Hwang, Tae Yoon; Lee, Jung Jeung; Kim, Chang Yoon; Chung, Jong Hak

Abstract

It has been studied that a variety of fauna and flora are sensitive biological indicators which reflect the severity of regional pollution of heavy metals, but in the center of part of Taegu city the controversial issue of lead poisoning attributable to the atmosphere which contains an increased concentrations of lead has been raised recently, it is usually hard to find suitable plants or animal in the areas with heavy traffic. Pigeons are ubiquitous in and around Taegu city area, inhabiting even the most densely populated areas with heavy traffic with its small body size, high metabolic turnover, and rather limited mobility, a pigeon, as a biological indicator is expected. This study was conducted to monitor lead pollution in the Taegu and kyongju city in Korea. We measured the lead content of the various tissue of three groups of feral pigeon(Columbia livia) and soil and atmospheric lead concentration. First group was obtained io heavy traffic area in Taegu City, the second group was obtained a park in Taegu city and the third group was obtained light traffic area in kyongju city. The air and soil lead concentration of heavy traffic area in Taegu city was 0.11 microgram/m2, 4.96 microgram/g, that of park in Taegu city was 0.05 microgram/m3, 2.65 microgram/g and that of light traffic area in kyonngju city was 0.03 microgram/m3, 0.01 microgram/g. The lead content of lung, blood, kidney, femur and liver of feral pigeons in heavy traffic area in Taegu city was significantly higher than pigeons obtained in a park in Taegu city and low traffic density area in Kyonfju city(p<0.01). But stomach lead content of three group did not reflect a significant difference. In this study positive correlation was found between atmospheric lead concentrations and the concentration of lead in the pigeon's lung(r=0.5040, p<0.001), blood(r=0.3322, p<0.01), kidney(r=0.4824, p<0.001), femur(r=0.7214, p<0.001) and liverer (r=0.4836, p<0.01). we can also found positive correlation between soil lead concentrations and the concentration of lead in the pigeon's femur(r=0.4850, p<0.001), kidney(r=0.4850, p<0.001) and liver(r=0.4386, p<0.01). In the pigeon`s tissue there were significant correlations between concentration of lead in the blood and kidney(r=0.4818, p<0.001), femur(r= 0.6157, p<0.001) and liver(r=0.3889, p<0.001). In conclusion, at the heavy traffic area in Taegu city, lead concentrations found in the atmosphere and soil are reflected in the lead concentrations of different tissue of urban pigeons. It is suggested that the tissue of pigeons can be good biological indicators of environmental lead pollution.