Notice of RetractionEffect of Deicing Salt on Ion Conentrations in Urban Roadside Snow and Surface Water

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

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The damaging effects of deicing salt on surface water have been suggested by a number of studies, but there is a lack of knowledge about these effects on urban roadside snow and surface water in northeastern China. The concentrations of K, Ca, Na, Mg, Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cl^- and SO₄^2- in roadside snow and surface water in the urban areas of Shenyang city were measured during 2007/2010. The results indicate that the concentrations of Na, Mg, K and Cd increased significantly in the roadside snow after deicing salt applied in winter season. The sodium concentration (1521.02 mg l^-1) in roadside snow is extensively higher than that (0.6 mg l^-1) in roadside snow samples collected far from urban roads. It is also found that there was an obvious increasing of Na, Ca and CI concentrations in surface water samples collected from streams, lakes and Hun river in/or adjacent to urban areas. This work demonstrated that deicing salts significantly contribute to the increasing concentrations of Na, Ca, Mg, Cd, Cl^-, and SO₄^2- in roadside snow, which resulting the elevated levels of these elements in urban surface water through runoff. It is evident that the application of deicing salts in cold regions of China every year has had adverse impacts on the surface water quality and aquatic ecology.