Environmental Assessment of Some Heavy Metals Pollution in Street Dust in the Industrial Areas of Ahvaz

Abstract

Background: High concentrations of heavy metals in street dust are considered to be a serious risk to human health and the environment. Therefore, investigating the concentration of heavy metals to monitor pollution and preserve the quality of the environment is essential. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the concentration, enrichment factor (EF), pollution index (PI), and Nemrow integrated pollution index (NIPI) of potentially heavy metals including Cr, Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Ni, V, As, and Co in street dust in the industrial areas of Ahvaz. Methods: A total of 29 dust samples were collected from sidewalks of main streets of industrial areas of Ahvaz and were analyzed by the inductively coupled spectroscopy (ICP-OES) method. Results: The average concentration of heavy metals in Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Cd, Ni, V, As, and Co was respectively: 86, 999, 50, 57, 0.3, 58, 184, 6, and 13 (mg/kg), respectively. The mean concentration of all heavy metals in the samples of dust in the industrial areas of Ahvaz was several times higher than that of baseline values. Based on the average EF in the study area, Zn and Pb have extremely high enrichment. In addition, Zn, V, and Pb, with the highest PI average, displayed high pollution. In addition, the evaluation of NIPI showed that 100% of samples have high pollution. Conclusions: The source of pollution of studied metals was anthropogenic, such as urban industrial facilities, transport, vehicle traffic, and burning of fossil fuels in the studied area. Generally, some protective protocol are proposed to reduce the level of heavy metals pollution in the city of Ahvaz, such as environmental control of gases produced by industries and factories, increase of green space, conversion of liquid fuel to gaseous, and use of public transportation.