LAUSR

Due to increasing car traffic, concentrations of platinum (Pt) in all environmental compartments have significantly increased in the last two decades. Primarily, contamination of larger cities and specific environmental compartments has mostly been examined. Only limited data on Pt pollution of middle-sized cities are available. In this article, we study Pt concentrations in tunnel dust, soil and plant material collected in the middle-sized city of Brno, Czech Republic, in 2015–2016. Prior to analyses of samples, we optimized and validated preconcentration as a step preceding to AAS analysis in order to improve the LOQ and LOD values. Platinum concentration in tunnel dust ranged from 66.3 to 192 ng g−1 before cleaning the tunnels and from 29.2 to 38.2 ng g−1 after it. As expected, the Pt contents in soil and plant material were two to three orders lower. The concentrations in soil fluctuated from 10.5 to 15.7 ng g−1 Pt; they were comparable to Pt levels in grass that oscillated from 10.0 to 11.6 ng g−1 Pt. This implies relatively easy dissolution of Pt and its transport from soil to grass, which is in contrast to previous assumption that Pt is solubilized very slowly in environmental compartments. The Pt contents in all samples collected outside the traffic routes did not exceed the limit of quantification. Therefore, concentrations of Pt in the parts of the city exposed to high car traffic are several orders higher than those found in non-exposed sites; levels of Pt are increasing fast, which should initiate more comprehensive and intense research on the subject.