ABSTRACT
The pollution extent by heavy metals in soils is dependent on their total contents, chemical speciation, sources, and some soil physicochemical factors affected their geochemical behaviors. The difficulty in characterization of soil, and current lack of ecological risk assessment methods for heavy metals in farmland soils in China are to be addressed. This study aimed are to investigate the distribution of Arsenic (As) and Antimony (Sb) in different soils collected from 21 provinces of China, and to assess the total content of As and Sb in the soil samples. The present study evaluates the understanding of differences in soil bio-toxicity effects against different heavy metals. The total content of As and Sb in different soils was extracted by double acid digestion (HNO3 and HCl). The concentration was measured using HG-AFS technique. It provides the basic information about the presence of these toxic metals in different types of soils around China.
