Potential risk of heavy metals to various receptors including humans depends on the bioavailability of the heavy metals in soil. In this study, the heavy metal extraction methods using 0.1N HCl and aqua regia were compared with the Tessier's sequential extraction method to assess whether these two methods can be used to determine the plant-available heavy metal concentrations. The contamination characteristics of copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and arsenic (As) found in soils collected from 75 sites around the closed Janghang smelter were analyzed by extracting heavy metals using 0.1 N HCl, aqua regia, and the Tessier's sequential extraction method. The portion of metals bioavailable to plants is considered as the sum of the fraction 1 (exchangeable) and the fraction 2 (carbonates binding) of the Tessier's 5-step sequential extraction method, which were determined to be 3.1 ${\pm}$ 3.82, 0.6 ${\pm}$ 0.15, 20.6 ${\pm}$ 18.78, and 7.0 ${\pm}$ 6.48 mg/kg for Cu, Cd, Pb, and As, respectively, in this study. When the extraction using aqua regia and the Tessier's extraction method were compared, the extracted Cu and Pb concentrations did not show significant differences, whereas the extracted Cd and As concentrations showed significant differences. These results indicate that the portion of Cd and As in the fraction 5 of the Tessier's sequential extraction can not be extracted using aqua regia. Using aqua regia, which is the official test method, higher concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb and As were extracted than the sum of the fraction 1 and 2. The results show that only 9, 40, 39 and 10% of Cu, Cd, Pb and As using aqua regia can be uptaken by plants (i.e., plant-available). Using 0.1N HCl, the portion of Cd equivalent to about 66% the fraction 1 could be extracted, while, with Pb, the portion of the fraction 1 and about 90% of the fraction 2 could be extracted. With As, the portion equivalent to the fraction 1, 2 and 79% of the fraction 3 was extracted, while with Cu, the portion equivalent to the fraction 1, 2, 3 and 20% of the fraction 4 was extracted using 0.1N HCl.

Keywords: Janghang Smelter;Metal;Bioavailability;Metal extraction;