Sources of Environmental Pollution in Ankara (Turkey): Geochemistry and Traffic EffectsPEDXRF Applications

Road dusts were collected from the main streets in the vicinity of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, including exhaust dust samples from the different fuel-based motor vehicles and sample pieces of brake pads to characterize their metal compositions by polarized energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (PEDXRF) spectrometry. Road dust samples were gathered by a vacuum dust sweeper from nine different densely populated residential settlement regions of Ankara, far from large industrial plants. Heavy metal contents of the road dusts were analyzed during the summertime to determine the metal pollution due to the motor vehicle exhaust, abrasion of brake pads, and lithology, ignoring the industrial and heating sources of pollution. The results of the analysis showed that the elements of Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Sn, Pb, and Th in road dust samples were not derived from the lithology and industrial plants but from the motor fuel exhausts and brake pad abrasion. Generally, urban environmental pollution due to the toxic trace metals from traffic is harmful for the human health as well as the ecosystems near Ankara.