Konceptuell modell över spridningsvägar för glasbruksföroreningar i Rejmyre samhälle

Sammanfattning: Rejmyre in Östergötland County is a small village of about 1000 residents. According to existing data, glass waste is scattered in private and communal gardens in the village. Glass waste has been produced since 1810 from the local glass industry. Historically, lead, cadmium, and even arsenic were used in manufacturing glass. However, these substances are no longer used in modern glass production. Because of the glass waste scattered in the village, we decided to take samples of soil and drinking water in various locations to measure levels of potentially toxic substances and analyse whether they are a risk to the environment and human health, or not. This work also includes studies of possible exposure and pathways of these metals. The analyses showed that several private and municipal gardens in Rejmyre village are not only contaminated by arsenic and lead, but also moderately contaminated by cadmium. Poor hygiene or improperly cleaned food is the main route of exposure to these contaminants. According to the analyses of leachate, these metals are tightly bound to the glass waste. However, as the glass waste occurs in the upper soil sequence, and because wells for drinking water are drilled deep into the rock, the risk that these metals spread to the ground water is judged to be small. The risk of contaminating nearby surface waters is also small. However, even though the risk is small, there is still a possibility that these metals could disperse into the environment because the glass particles will weather with time. More detailed studies are needed to determine whether these high metal concentrations in the soil can have a negative influence on the environment and human health. Further investigations of water pathways and geology are required to determine if the metals can spread to surrounding surface waters and drinking water reservoirs.