Applied environmental Geochemistry - Antropogenic impact on the human environment in the SE Europe

A total of 201 samples of topsoil were collected over the area of35.8 km2 (Fig. 2) according to the European guidelines for soil pollution studies (Salminen et aI., 2005). The surroundings were sampled in a 1 x I km; the town in a 500x500 m; and the polluted areas in a 250x250 m grid. Soil was sampled from the topsoils (0-5 cm), the possible organic horizon excluded. The soil samples were air dried indoor at room temperature, then gently crushed, cleaned and sifted through a plastic sieve with 2 mm. The shifted mass was quartered and milled in agate mill to an analytical grain size below 0.125 mm. Two complementary analytical techniques were used: atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) performed at the Institute of Chemistry in Skopje, Macedonia, and the epithermal neutron activation analysis (ENAA) at the IBR-2 reactor, FLNP Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Moscow, Russia