Biomonitoring of Heavy Metals in the Ambient Air Around

International Bridges of El Paso TX/Juarez, Mex., Using

Tumbleweed and Chelating Agents

Jason G. Parsons, Tenoch Benitez, Jose R. Peralta-Videa, Alejandro Martinez, Rafael Corral, Roberto

Hurtado, and Jorge Gardea-TorresdeyThe Department of Chemistry at the University of

Texas at El Paso, El Paso TX, 79968

Introduction

• The international ports of entry in the El Paso, TX/Ciudad Juarez, Mexico border region are a significant source of air pollutants due to a high vehicular traffic

Current Heavy Metals Sampling Techniques(among others)

• Filter Sampling: Filters, high, and low volume samplers required

• Precipitation Sampling: Requires a wet collector

• Direct measurement of toxic substances in the environment by the use of living organisms.

• Inexpensive and environmentally friendly approach to determine inorganic contaminants at trace levels

Biomonitoring

www.biomonitoring.com/

Chelating Agents

• Chemical compounds which create complexes with heavy metals, therefore increasing their bioavailability for living organisms to consume (e.g. plants).

Methodology

Methodology

• Tumbleweed seeds were collected around El Paso, TX from a site that does not have any previous report on metal contamination.

• Seeds sown in black plastic bags

• Three month old plants were misted with the chelating agents and placed at the bridges over a four week period.

Experiment Setting

Sample processing

• The aerial portion of the plants were then collect, dried and weighed.

• The weighed samples were microwave digested using the EPA method 3051.

Element determination

• The samples were analyzed for elemental content using a Perkin Elmer Elan DRCII ICP-MS

Results

Metal Uptake in Tumbleweed plants without chelating agents

Metal content in shoots of plants treated with 0.1 M EDTA and 0.1 M Citrate

EDTA Citrate

Metal content in shoots of plants treated with 0.5 M EDTA and 0.5 M Citrate

EDTA Citrate

Metal content in shoots of plants treated with 1.0 M EDTA and 1.0 M Citrate

EDTA Citrate

Conclusions

• The concentrations of metals deposited in plant shoots appeared to be related to the relative amounts of traffic at each of the sampling sites (higher at Zaragoza and lower at Santa Teresa).

• There were no effects of the concentration of chelating agents upon the accumulation of metals on tumbleweed shoots.

• The data showed that Tumbleweed plants have the capability to be used for the biomonitoring of heavy metals from polluted air.

Acknowledgements

SCERP project A-05-13 SCORE

The Dudley family for the Endowed Research Professorship in ChemistryThe STAR Grant