Abstract
In this study, the relationship between metals (Cu, Cr, Cd, Zn. Pb, and Fe) 5 fractions and toxicity of soil samples from various contaminated sites in Korea were investigated. Metal toxicity of soils was tested using MetPLATE$^{TM}$ test kit, which is known as metal sensitive and organic insensitive. Significant amount of Fe was found in soils, and metal contents were in the order of Fe>Zn>Pb>Cu>Cr>Cd. Metal levels in organic fraction were rather high for all metals except Fe, and quite high percentages (35~79%) for residual fraction were observed for all metals. There were no significant relationships between the content of each metal fraction and toxicity which showed regression $R^2$in the range of 0.0003~0.414. However, correlation between toxicity and total metal contents showed regression coefficient $R^2$= 0.72. These results showed that the risk evaluation of metals in contaminated sites should be difficult to assess only by the contents of metal distribution because of the complexity of mixture of various metals.s.