Heavy metal partitioning and oral bioaccessibility in mine soils of the Italian alps

The impact of past mining activities on their surrounding environment has been documented in several locations around the world; however, in most of the case the analysis was directed to the total concetrations and to the spatial distribution. Instead, to understand the risk posed by metals and the dynamics in the surrounding evironment the key features are the bioaccessible concentrations along with the informations on metals mobility and speciation. In this research, we assessed impact of two mine sites located in the Alps in Northern Italy; the Campello Monti site (CM), in Piemonte Region, exploited for Fe-Ni-Cu-Co magmatic sulphide deposits and the Plassa site (PL), in Lombardia, a large area where Zn and Pb were extracted since Roman times. The aim of this study was to assess the environmental impact of the abandoned mine sites on the surrounding soils and the potential impacts on other environmental compartments.