Contamination and assessments of heavy metals in the soil of municipal waste from Bachok, Tumpat And Tanah Merah dumpsites in Kelantan

Heavy metals contamination was one of the most important environmental issues and the dumping of municipal waste at the dumpsites led to the contamination. Hence this study concentrated at three dumpsites in Kelantan, which were Tapak Pelupusan Beris Lalang (Bachok), Tapak Pelupusan Kok Bedollah (Tumpat), and Tapak Pelupusan Bukit Che Ros (Tanah Merah). The aims of this study were to determine the concentration of selected heavy metals, to examine the quality of soil using soil assessments, and to examine possible human risk from exposure to heavy metals in soil. A total of nine soil samples were collected at the dumpsites. All soil samples were goes through laboratory analysis and were analysed using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). Besides that, Igeo, PLI, and health risk were calculated. This study revealed the mean concentration of heavy metals in soil at Tapak Pelupusan Beris Lalang as following order, Cu (16.00 mgkg-1) > Cr (11.87 mgkg-1) > Zn (10.54 mgkg-1) > Mn (6.69 mgkg-1) > Pb (5.72 mgkg-1), while Tapak Pelupusan Kok Bedollah, Mn (64.86 mgkg-1) > Zn (31.28 mgkg-1) > Cu (18.92 mgkg-1) > Pb (18.59 mgkg-1) > Cr (3.52 mgkg-1) and Tapak Pelupusan Bukit Che Ros, Zn (17.46 mgkg-1) > Cu (13.24 mgkg-1) > Cr (8.60 mgkg-1) > Mn (5.74 mgkg-1) > Pb (4.89 mgkg-1). Meanwhile for soil assessments, the Igeo value demonstrated that all the stations were in class 0 except of T2 station for Pb that reached the class 1. This also supported with the PLI value that found none of the three dumpsites categorised as polluted because the PLI values were 0.13 (Tapak Pelupusan Beris Lalang), 0.26 (Tapak Pelupusan Kok Bedollah), and 0.12 (Tapak Pelupusan Bukit Che Ros). Other than that, this study revealed the HQ value from Tapak Pelupusan Beris Lalang and Tapak Pelupusan Bukit Che Ros were in the following order HQingestion > HQdermal > HQinhalation while from Tapak Pelupusan Kok Bedollah was as followed HQingestion > HQinhalation > HQdermal. According to the findings of this study, if the dumpsite management remains not properly managed, this contamination may continue to have an impact on soil quality in the future. Thus, the data obtained from this study was useful to help authorities managed the dumpsites systematically in order to mitigate environmental risk.