Assessment of anthropogenic pollution of snow cover in the area of the location of the new aluminum production facility

Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to the need to study the aero-technogenic load on new territories adjacent to the production zones of the aluminum industry.

Research objective. To assess the content of heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and petroleum hydrocarbons in snow cover using the example of various districts of the city of Tayshet.

Materials and methods. Snow geochemical survey, atomic absorption spectrometry; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, ecological-geochemical and statistical methods.

Results. The chemical elements determining the geochemical specificity of emissions identified in the snow samples were divided into the following classes: I – Pb, Hg, Cd; II – Cu, Cr, Fe, Ni; III – Zn, Mn. The median values of heavy metals (HM) were determined in the range of 0.03–111.0; 0.11–102.5 and 0.14–137.0 µg/L for the residential, recreational, and industrial zones, respectively. ΣPAHs ranged from 177 ng/L (T. 5 – recreational zone) to 3526.0 ng/L (T. 9 industrial zone), with a predominance of 4–6-nuclear PAHs (67.0%). The proportion of carcinogenic PAHs in the study increases from the residential (26.1%) to the conditionally industrial (48.9%) zone. The levels of petroleum hydrocarbons (PH) were determined in the concentration range of 21.0–60.0 µg/L.

Limitations. One potential limitation of this study is the lack of data on the concentrations of contaminants at environmental sources.

Conclusion. The levels of PAH, PH, and HM pollution in the area were low to medium. The characteristic features of the PAH composition under the influence of technogenic emissions were determined. The highest values of the sum of the PAH accumulation factors were noted in areas with multi-story buildings (T. 11 – 67.98) and in the area of aluminum production near checkpoint #7 (T. 9 – 44.51); the indicator of the total HM pollution Zc (46.29 and 65.02) near checkpoint #7 (T. 9) and treatment facilities (T. 5), respectively. The obtained results of the study can be used to predict the technogenic impact on the environment.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study does not require submission of the Biomedical ethics committee or other documents.

Contribution:
Zhurba O.M. – concept and design of the study, search for literature sources, data processing, field work, writing the text;
Rukavishnikov V.S. – scientific consulting, relevance, discussion;
Shayakhmetov S.F. – concept and design of the study, organization of the study, editing, discussion;
Merinov A.V. – collection of literature data, laboratory work, statistical processing, field work, writing;
Alekseenko A.N. – collection and processing of material, field work, laboratory research.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The work was performed within the framework of funds allocated for the implementation of the state task East-Siberian Institute of Medical and Ecological Research.

Received: July 16, 2025 / Revised: September 5, 2025 / Accepted: October 15, 2025 / Published: November 14, 2025

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