A Review of Metal Levels in Urban Dust, Their Methods of Determination, and Risk Assessment

Abstract

This review gives insights into the levels of metals in urban dust, their determination methods, and risk assessment. Urban dust harbors a number of pollutants, including heavy metals. There are various methods used for the sampling of urban dust for heavy-metal analysis and source-apportionment purposes, with the predominant one being the use of plastic sampling materials to avoid prior contamination. There are also various methods for the determination of metals, which include: atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), among others. Studies have shown that pollutants in urban dust are mainly derived from industrial activities and coal combustion, whereas traffic emissions are also an important, but not a predominant source of pollution. The varying particle-size distribution of urban dust and its large surface area makes it easier for the deposition and transport of heavy metals. Risk-assessment studies have shown that metals in urban dust could cause such problems as human pulmonary toxicity and reduction of invertebrate populations. The risk levels seem to be higher in children than adults, as some studies have shown. It is therefore important that studies on metals in urban dust should always incorporate risk assessment as one of the main issues.

Toxic metal concentrations and Cu–Zn–Pb isotopic compositions in tires

“…The fine road dust particles more easily diffuse into the atmosphere than sediments from the geological origins. Toxic metals in fine urban dust can pose potentially serious health risks to residents via pathways of ingestion and inhalation (Adamiec and Jarosz-Krzeminska 2019;Kaonga et al 2021). Many studies have reported that urban dust is severely contaminated with toxic metals, and Zn is more polluted than other metals (Skorbilowicz et al 2020;Jeong et al 2020b).…”

Heavy metal analysis in of indoor and outdoor dust extracts and cytotoxicity evaluation and inflammation factors on lung, gastric and skin cell lines

“…DPs are important routes for loading HMs into the human body [ 19 ]. The health risks posed by HMs in indoor and outdoor DPs have attracted particular attention [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. https://journals.sagepub.com/action/doSearch?target=default&ContribAuthorStored=Naimabadi%2C+Abolfazl Previously, Naimabadi et al.…”

Assessment of metal pollution and its association with human health risk in urban areas of Myanmar

“…These results indicate urban pollution by metals, especially in Mandalay. Previous studies found that Cu, Cd, Zn, As, Hg, and Pb concentrations were high in urban road dust influenced by vehicle sources (brake linings and tires), industrial activities, and coal burning activities and so on (Benhaddya et al, 2016;Kaonga et al, 2021;Wei et al, 2015).…”