Heavy metals concentration in soils from parks and green areas in Belgrade

The current study included the investigation of several metals and their distribution in urban soils from parks and green areas in the city of Bel- grade. The soils were sampled in January and February 2008. The concentra- tions of Cd, Co, Cu, Pb, Mn and Zn were measured, as well as the pH values and organic matter contents. The obtained results showed that there was a sig- nificant level of contamination in some samples, especially with lead, and that it was most probably caused by anthropogenic activities, mostly from traffic. The results were compared with the National legislation and Netherlands stan- dards. Also, the recent results were compared with the data from previous work and it was concluded that there has been a certain increase of the Pb concen- tration in the past three years. The level of pollution in playground soil was very high and each analyzed sample exceeded the Dutch target value for Cd, Co and Pb.