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A convenient organic solvent treatment method was developed for the determination of Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb in polyethylene and polypropylene matrices by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The solvent treatment method had many advantages for the fast, simple, and accurate multi-element analysis of these materials. Calibration curves were prepared using organometallic compounds in xylene in the concentration range of 1-80 mg kg(-1). The prepared samples had a homogeneous elemental distribution and good durability. The trueness for the quantification of mentioned elements were checked by using a polyethylene certified reference material. The apparent recoveries of the elements with certified values were in the range of 0.81 (Hg) to 1.14 (Pb). The precision was normally better than 8% RSD, with the exception of Hg (10%). The method detection limits were found to be 12, 24, 12, and 12 mg kg(-1) for Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb, respectively. Polyethylene and polypropylene samples were analyzed by both the XRF method and the reference technique for comparative purposes. Application of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no differences between the mean results. The proposed method could be also applied to several different xylene soluble plastics.

The main objective of the present study is to determine the type of environmental contamination in lichens in Gokceada Island in the Northern Aegean Sea in Turkey. We used two different lichen species Cladonia foliacea and Ramalina pollinaria. In the first part of the investigation, the beta activities of lichens have been measured by using a TENNELEC LB 1000-PW detector. The range of beta activity values was between 607 ± 30 and 308 ± 12 Bq/kg for C. foliacea lichens collected from around Tuz Lake and values for R. pollinaria lichens were found to be 740 ± 25 and 541 ± 17 Bq/kg. The second part of the study was concerned with the gamma spectra of the lichen samples measured by using HpGe detector. 137Cs, 134Cs, 40K, 232Th, 226Ra radionuclides were found in C. foliacea collected from around Tepekoy and in R. pollinaria from around Tuz Lake. When these two types of lichens were compared, it was found that R. pollinaria contain more radionuclides. In order to compare and determine which of these lichens act as a better bioaccumulator, K, Mn, Zn, Rb, Sr, Ba and Pb metal content were determined by using Energy Dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. It was found that C. foliacea collected more Mn and Sr when compared to R. pollinaria.