Sources of dissolved mine drainage and atmospheric transported lead: a comparative case study in Japan and Sweden.

Abstract A comparative case study in Naganobori Japan and Falun Sweden of runoff water from copper mines shows that the water and its particulates, filtered with a cutoff of 0.45 μm, have different lead isotope ratios pointing to different origins for the lead. While the larger particles have a lead ratio indicative of the atmospheric anthropogenic pollution the soluble lead has that of the copper ores. The domestic atmospheric lead ratio in Japan is homogeneous and characteristic of emissions from the incineration of waste. Lead pollution transported from the Asian continent by westerly winds can be distinguished from the Japanese pollution by its more thorogenic lead ratios, in for example analyses of copper moss from Naganobori.