Heavy Metals Content and Health Risk Assessment in Airborne Particulate from the Calabria Region, Southern Italy

Abstract

This study is focused on the determination of the heavy metals content in airborne particulate matter (PM) with a diameter lower than 10 µm (PM10) deposited on quartz microfiber filters and collected in four representative selected sites of the Calabria region, southern Italy. In particular, data on the content of Cd, Ni, and Pb in PM10 (i.e., those metals whose limit values, in terms of concentration, are reported in the Italian Legislation) were obtained through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurements after acid extraction with microwaves and filtration. Results showed that the average concentration of investigated metals decreases as Ni > Pb > Cd for all analyzed samples, and concentration values are lower than the limit values reported in the Italian legislation in all cases. Moreover, in order to assess the health risk related to their presence in the environment, the potential non-carcinogenic hazard for the investigated heavy metals was evaluated by calculating the hazard index (HI) for children and adults. Results indicated that the calculated HI values were lower than the safety limit in all cases, thus indicating a negligible non-carcinogenic health risk. In addition, the potential carcinogenic hazard for the investigated metals was estimated through the total cancer risk index (Risktotal). Obtained results were also lower than the limit value for children and adults in this case, and, therefore, the carcinogenic health risk caused by heavy metals in the analyzed PM10 samples could be considered to be unremarkable.