SINGLE MODIFIED FRACTIONATION TECHNIQUE OF LEAD IN SEDIMENTS OF SHATT AL-HILLA-IRAQHazim Aziz AL-Robai and Russel Jabbar Al-JbouriAbstract Lead is one of the most abundant heavy metals and its toxic effects cause environmental and health problems. Sediments samples were collected from three depths of five stations at the right bank of Shatt Al-Hilla in Babylon province, starting from Saad bridge (station 1) to the north of Al-Hashimia city (station 5). A fivestep single modified sequential extraction procedure was used to determine chemical phases of lead element in the sediments samples. The results of sediments properties which is related to the speciation of studied heavy metal Pb showed that the sediments were weakly alkaline, calcareous nature and poor organic content. The fractionation of lead ions showed that the large amount is associated with available and carbonates fractions which are considered as weakly bound and easily available in the aqueous phase for organisms in aquatic environment, indicates the dominance of anthropogenic sources. On other hand the residual fraction which constitutes a percentage of 26.3% of the total content of the element is considered relatively safe because, the element is not easily released under normal conditions. |