High Lead Concentrations in Columbus Snow

Abstract

Lead concentrations in snow collected on the ground within 100 feet of streets and roads in January, 1970, were determined by atomic absorption spectropho tome trie analysis of dissolved and particulate fractions of impurities. Twenty-seven samples of snow were collected over a 20 square-mile, suburban, mainly residential part of Columbus, Ohio. Measured concentrations were between 0.05 and 1.09 ppm Pb, with an average of 0.41 ppm. In all but one sample the lead concentration exceeded the U.S. Public Health Service safe limit for drinking water of 0.05 ppm. The temporal and areal distributions of concentrations, together with a comparison with iron concentrations measured in the same samples, indicated that automobile exhaust was the probable source of the lead.