ABSTRACT
Arsenic (As) a natural component of earth's crust, is contaminating soil sediments, transported into surface water and groundwater and may poison crops and vegetables. Communities affected by As poisoning are generally not aware of its contaminations in the soil sediments. In the present study, 3 typical soil profiles were chosen to collect 15 soil sediment samples from the depth range of 0–150 cm. Samples were analysed for As, manganese and iron. Average concentrations of As, iron and manganese were found 27, 512 k and 568 k mg/kg. However, WHO (1993) has not specified any toxicity limits of As, iron and manganese concentrations in agricultural soils but Grsichek et al., 1993 have specified limits as <1 k, <1000 k and < 10 K for As, iron and manganese, respectively in sediments excavated during drilling of RBF wells. As per these limits concentrations of iron and manganese were found exceeding the toxicity levels.
