Airborne lead dust concentration in Townsville, Queensland is associated with port activity and may contribute to estuarine sediment contamination

Abstract

Australia has a history of overlooking heavy metal contamination in towns and water bodies that can impact on human and environmental health. Airborne lead pollution in many regional Australian towns is often related to mining, smelting and transport of minerals. Recent studies in Townsville have shown inner city soil and playgrounds, creek and nearby off-shore sediment to have heavy metal concentrations that exceed Australian standards; this contamination is suspected to originate from the port. To assess the port as a current source of lead dust, we evaluated one year of data in 2015-2016 on lead concentration in air from the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection continuous met..