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Abstract: A sediment core in Lake Qinghai in northwest China was collected in 2006. 137Cs and 210Pb activities were analyzed to investigate the chronology of the sediment core. Sb and Pb concentrations, and Pb stable isotopic ratios were analyzed to study the historical atmospheric deposition records and sources of Sb over the past 15 centuries. The Sb concentration was 4.21±1.52μg/g in the sediments, its vertical distribution of Sb shows three large peaks in the recent two centuries, 1799, 1896 and 1944, coincided with Sb contamination from large wars, respectively. The peak in 1920 responded the large earthquake that happened in northern China, which was not far away from Lake Qinghai. The Sb/Pb ratio, 206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/206Pb results suggest that Sb and Pb were probably from the ores in South China and coals in North China before 1965, but obviously from uses of leaded gasoline after 1965. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To study the characteristics of antimony (Sb) bioaccumulation under high Sb background values, aquatic, amphibious and terrestrial biological samples were collected in the vicinity of the Xikuangshan (XKS) Sb mine area in China. Hydride generation-atomic fluorescence (HG-AFS) analysis showed that Sb concentrations in terrestrial invertebrates (average 30,400μgkg−1 dry wt.) were higher than those in aquatic (average 5200μgkg−1 dry wt.) and amphibian (average 2300μgkg−1 dry wt.) biological samples. Within 1km distance of the XKS Sb mine area, grasshoppers (Acrida chinensis) and earthworms (Pheretima aspergillum) had the highest Sb amounts of 17,300±3200 and 43,600±47,700μgkg−1 dry wt., respectively. No Sb biomagnifications were observed. The bioavailability of Sb was found to be lower than those of As and Hg. A preliminary conclusion is that antagonistic effects exist between Sb and Hg accumulation in biological samples from aquatic environments. Our study is the first to report such antagonistic effects between Sb and Hg. If this deduction proves to be correct, it should be taken into consideration in assessing human health risks, especially when Sb and Hg concentrations in the aquatic environments are high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]