Application of magnetic method in environmental pollutions

The paper presents results of a study of air pollution accumulated on the surfaee of leaves and bark of trees and soil in the urban environment of a city. The study bused magnetic method, which is based on the measurements of parameters of all magnetic minerals contained in traffic and industrial pollution. The samples of leaves and bark of chestnut trees and soil under the trees were taken from several places located in the centre of Warsaw (Poland) and Kiev (Ukraine) along the main roads which varied with traffic density and the level of pollution. The study showed that the magnetic susceptibility of leaves at the beginning and at the end of the growing season increases several times. It proved that they are a good bio-indicator of the level of air pollution. According to the results the level of pollution in Warsaw and Kiev are comparable for areas exposed to high traffic pollution and for parks/squares. The soil susceptibility is always higher than the susceptibility of leaves. This is due to the accumulation of pollution by the soil during the time period longer than the growing season. In the parks, there are no leaves in the winter and the consequent lack of soil protection against pollution can affect the increase in the susceptibility of soils. It was found that the susceptibility of the soil in the contrary to the susceptibility of the leaves does not always correlate with the intensity of road traffic. Probably, in winter the other factors such as power plant or domestic heating systems play important role