Vol.4, No.12, 792-799 (2013) Agricultural Sciences http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/as.2013.412108 Copyright © 2013 SciRes. OPEN ACCESS The evaluation of industrial cement production plant on the environmental pollution using magnetic susceptibility technique Hadi Ghorbani 1 , Ali Aghababaei 2* , Hamid Reza Mirkarimi 3 1 Department of Soil and Water College of Agriculture, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran 2 Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran; * Corresponding Author: babaei11.ali@gmail.com 3 Faculty of Agriculture, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Received 26 September 2013; revised 25 November 2013; accepted 23 December 2013 Copyright © 2013 Hadi Ghorbani et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Li- cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Different pollutants in soil, water, and other parts of the environment are so important in portray- ing environmental pollution, and could come from different source of pollutions including industrial activities. Entering metals into the soil by human activities is an important process in the geochemical cycling of heavy metals. Among the potentially toxic metals, mercury, lead, cad- mium, nickel, arsenic, selenium and chromium could be named as the most toxic. Each of these elements is used in industrial activities and most of them are considered as by-products of mining, refining and similar industrial activities. Although the establishment of cement factories is usually associated with job creation and other economic aspects, the purpose of economic interests, is inevitable environmental damage caused by cement factories. Therefore, research on pollution originated from factories appears to be necessary. In order to determine the effect of cement production on farmland around Sha- hrood cement factory, soil samples were taken from surface soils from depth of 0 - 30 cm. The samples were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrometer instrument after samples prepara- tion using standard frequently used methods. Soil magnetic susceptibility of the samples was also measured using Saskopto meters MFK1-FA. The results showed that among the parameters studied, the element of Zinc has shown the lowest mean value equal to 0.31 mg·kg −1 and iron has shown the highest mean value equal to 6.36 mg·kg −1 . Keywords: Magnetic Susceptibility; Soil; Cement; Pollution 1. INTRODUCTION Development of the cement industry is going through a growing process. In this regard, it is unavoidable envi- ronmental damage caused by cement factories. Therefore, pollution from factories and industrial activities can be beneficial for the environment. Determination of met- als in soil, water, plant and sediment, is so important in portraying of environmental pollution. The transi- tion of metals into the atmosphere by human activities is an important process in the geochemical cycling of heavy metals. Heavy metals are a source of contamination in soil, water and air, which mainly enter the environment through various activities such as mining, manufacturing. Pol- lution from cement factories, could be the primary dust, heavy metals in calcareous materials, and clay, and kiln fuels. The effect of mining on the environ- ment is different, such as the quality of the ore, mining methods, land and many others factors. Extraction and processing of mineral resources will have a great in- fluence on soil resources, air, water and biological resources [1]. Given the increasing demand for mineral resources, we have to do protective measures and engineering, through air pollution control, water and soil, which mi- nimized the problems in the area and away from it. Al- though these conservation measures will increase the cost of the products extraction and preparation, and thus