Dust–Metal Sources in an Urbanized Arid Zone: Implications for Health-Risk Assessments

Abstract

The available information concerning metal pollution in different dust sources and the health effects in children remains limited in Mexico. This study focuses on Hermosillo, which is an urbanized area located in the Sonoran Desert in which soil resuspension and dust emission processes are common. The metal content of arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), and lead (Pb) were determined in three dust sources (playgrounds, roofs, and roads), each representing different exposure media (EM) for these elements. The metal levels in dust were found in the order of Mn > Cr > Pb > As with the highest metal content found in road dust. Despite the similar average metal distributions, principal component analysis shows a clear separation of the three EM with playground dust related to Cr and Mn and road dust to As and Pb. However, the geoaccumulation index results indicate that dust samples are uncontaminated to moderately polluted, except for Pb in road dust, which is considerably high. In addition, the enrichment factor suggests an anthropogenic origin for all of the studied metals except for Mn. In this context, the hazard index (HI) for noncarcinogenic risk is >1 in this population and thus represents a potential health risk. The spatial distribution for each metal on EM and the HI related to the marginality index could represent a more accurate decision-making tool in risk assessment studies.

Identificación De Las Zonas Contaminadas Con Metales Pesados en El Polvo Urbano De La Ciudad De México

“…Recientemente, la Organización Mundial de la Salud declaró que alrededor de siete millones de personas por año mueren por cáncer y otras enfermedades relacionadas con la contaminación del aire (WHO 2014). La contaminación del aire, agua y suelos ha sido suficientemente estudiada y existen normas ambientales que la regulan, pero no así el polvo (García-Rico et al 2016).…”

“…El polvo proviene de fuentes naturales y antrópicas; sin embargo, el polvo urbano (PU) está compuesto principalmente de partículas derivadas de procesos antrópicos (García-Rico et al 2016) como la industria (Liu et al 2014), transporte vehicular y marítimo (Zafra et al 2011, Aguilar Reyes et al 2013, Sánchez-Duque et al 2015, Cortés et al 2017) y, en menor medida, la erosión de los suelos (Luo et al 2012, Chen et al 2014.…”

Is Unpaved Road Dust Near Fairbanks, Alaska a Health Concern? Examination of the Total and Bioaccessible Metal(loid)s

“…However, few have focused on dust in (sub)arctic environmental conditions ( Brumbaugh, Morman, & May, 2011 ; Hasselbach et al, 2005 ; Moghadas et al, 2015 ; Norman et al, 2016 ; Shotyk et al, 2016 ; Walker & Everett, 1987 ). Road dust is a potential source of human exposure to toxic metal(loid)s ( Colombo, Monhemius, & Plant, 2008 ; DeWitt et al, 2016 ; Garcia-Rico et al, 2016 ; Witt et al, 2014 ) and is of particular concern because the small particles (< 70 μm) are wind-transportable ( Gillette & Walker, 1977 ; Kok, Parteli, Michaels, & Bou Karam, 2012 ). Small particles (< 45 μm) are commonly also enriched in toxic metal(loid)s ( Meunier, Koch, & Reimer, 2011 ).…”

Serum matrix metalloproteinase-9 in children exposed to arsenic from playground dust at elementary schools in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

“…water plus food, (Burgess et al 2013;Kurzius-Spencer et al 2015) or MMP-9 in sputum from children exposed to arsenic in drinking water (Olivas-Calderon et al 2015), but there are no reported studies which evaluate the association between serum MMP-9 levels in children exposed to arsenic from soil or dust. In previous studies we have reported a potential health risk in children by exposure to multiple metals from various dust sources in Hermosillo, Sonora, and the high inorganic arsenic concentration in urban dust was one of the main contributors to the high risk value for the children (García-Rico et al 2016).…”