Salvatore Dominech

National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology | INGV · Section of Palermo

Terrigenous sediment in estuarine environments serves as a major sink for heavy metals sourced from land, and thus has been widely used for the investigation of anthropogenic pollution and environmental risk. This study presents the concentrations and chemical speciation of eight heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Ni, Pb, Cr, Hg, As, Cd) in 34 surface sediment...

The catchment basin of Sabato River (with an area of ca. 459 km²) in Southern Italy has been historically characterized by the presence of urban settlements and industrial development areas along its course (with a total length of 50 km). A total of 35 stream sediment samples was collected in 2019 from the main course of the river right after any t...

The Sabato river (~50 km) is located in a large industrial and urbanized area of the Campania region (Southern Italy), between the cities of Avellino and Benevento. Thus, a study on the distribution of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) and their potential sources was done. Here, we focused on the particular behavior of Cadmium. Firstly, we compared...

Stream sediment geochemical prospecting is historically acknowledged as a reliable tool to investigate the influence of geology and to assess the presence of natural and/or anthropogenic anomalies within river catchment basins at different scales. Several methods have been developed during decades to seek for geochemical anomalies especially those...

Bioavailability of some major and trace elements was evaluated in 1,993 topsoil samples collected across Campania region (Southern Italy). A main focus was made on Al, Ca, K, Mg, Cu, Tl since they are linked, for different reasons, to agriculture. Bioavailability was assessed by an extraction with ammonium nitrate and the data were compared with th...

Rivers can be sinks for potential toxic elements (PTEs) inputted in their systems by both natural and anthropic processes. Many indices have been proposed to assess the contamination degree of sediments and the environmental conditions of surficial water bodies. Above all, enrichment factor (EF) is the most used tool, but also it is the most debate...

The concentrations of a selection of major and trace elements were determined in 101 sediment samples collected from a core located in a mid-channel of the Changjiang River (China), about 150 km far away from the river mouth. The whole core refers to a sedimentation period of about 150 years (1850 ~ 2007). The median diameter (D50), as a main grain...

Radon is a ubiquitous radioactive gas proceeding from the decay of some naturally occurring radionuclides, mostly abundant in igneous rock and volcanic materials, including soils. It is the heaviest noble gas, thus chemically inert, and moderately soluble in water. The total amount of radon in nature derives from three unstable isotopes: 219 Rn (23...

The activity concentration of both naturally occurring (NOR) (i.e. U-238, Th-232, K-40) and technogenic (Cs-137) radionuclides was determined on 51 soil samples collected across Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Measures were carried out at the Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies National Academy of Sciences, RA (CENS) with a High Purity Ge dete...

A geochemical survey was carried out on stream sediments of the Sabato river (with a catchment area of catchment of ~400 km2) which flows in the inner territory of Southern Italy across hilly areas, mostly covered by woods, and valley sectors where both industrial and urban settlements are located. The concentrations of major and trace elements (53...

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are a group of synthetic molecules, consisting of organic structures containing at least one aromatic ring and one covalently bound chlorine atom, widely used for decades in agriculture (as insecticides and fungicides) and, subordinately, in the medical field. The study area, corresponding to the Acerra-Marigliano...

A study on low-level ionizing radiation and the associated risk was conducted on the city of Naples. 2548 measurements of ADER (µSv/h) were made in the open air at 0.2 (ADER0.2) and at 1 m (ADER1) above the ground, respectively, using a handheld gamma-ray spectrometer. Besides, a total of 13 samples of paving materials were collected and analyzed b...

In October2004, Senior and Mazza published a paper on The Lancet Oncology where the villages of Marigliano, Nola and Acerra were included within the vertices of a so-called "triangle of death" where the local population resulted to be strongly affected by a cancer incidence higher than the regional average. The aim of this work has been the evaluat...

Natural radioactivity basically depends on the presence of primordial radionuclides (which have been present on Earth since its origin) which spontaneously decay and transform to achieve a stable nuclear conformation. These transformations involve the emission of particles whose energy can have harmful effects on biological material even at low-dos...

The products of the natural decay of uranium-238, an unstable isotope of a radioactive element almost ubiquitous in geological materials, include radon-222 (Rn-222) and radium-226 (Ra-226). Rn-222 has a half-life of 3.8 days and its decay products (progeny) are represented by further radioactive isotopes of polonium (Po-218, Po-214, Po-210), bismut...

In recent years, Campania region in southern Italy has been subject to the attention of media for the alleged wide-scale contamination of an area with an original agricultural vocation interested, nowadays, by the presence of high environmental impact industrial activities and uncontrolled waste dumping. Often dumped waste, specially tyres and othe...

Sediment samples were collected in 2019 from Fiumi Uniti catchment in Italy in an area between the Romagna Apennines and the Adriatic Sea. The sampling phase included the collection of sediments from the Ridracoli reservoir, a large artificial basin located at 480 m a.s.l. made by construction of a dam on the Bidente river and used as the main drin...

In September 2004, Senior and Mazza published a paper on The Lancet Oncology where the villages of Marigliano, Nola and Acerra were included within the vertices of a so-called "triangle of death" where the local population resulted to be strongly affected by a cancer incidence higher than the regional average [1]. The aim of this work has been the...