Sources and a Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Dust at Children’s Playgrounds with Artificial Surfaces: A Case Study in Belgrade

Fractionation of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in Urban Soils from Salzburg, Thessaloniki and Belgrade: An Insight into Source Identification and Human Health Risk Assessment

“…Similar to the non-carcinogenic risk, CR values for children and adults were obtained based on three types of exposure (dermal, ingestion, and inhalation). The carcinogenic risk values decreased in the following order: As > Pb > Ni; however, CR results obtained for As were higher than for the other elements, which is in line with previous studies [ 35 , 37 , 79 ]. Although the CR for As was higher than for the other tested elements, it does not represent a health risk, since the calculated CR values are classified as an acceptable total risk.…”

“…A health risk assessment recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency [ 34 ] was performed in order to establish both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic effects on the human population from exposure to PTEs in urban soil. There are three pathways of exposure to PTEs that are often used to evaluate the risk to the population: directly through oral ingestion (CDIing), inhalation through the respiratory apparatus (CDIinh), and dermal absorption through the skin (CDIder) [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Both children and adults were taken into consideration when calculating the hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index (HI), carcinogenic risk (CR), and total carcinogenic risk (TRC).…”

“…Both children and adults were taken into consideration when calculating the hazard quotient (HQ), hazard index (HI), carcinogenic risk (CR), and total carcinogenic risk (TRC). The cancer risk was calculated in accordance with the probability of developing cancer over an individual’s lifetime [ 37 ]. The hazard quotient represents the ratio of chronic daily intake (CDI, mg kg −1 d −1 ) to the reference dose (RfD, mg kg −1 d −1 ) [ 36 ], while HI designates the sum of the HQs for each PTE and their exposure routes [ 36 , 37 , 38 ].…”

“…The risk assessment was conducted using Equations (1)–(4), as proposed by Baltas et al [ 35 ], Hu et al [ 36 ], Čakmak et al [ 37 ], and Wang et al [ 38 ], respectively: where C represents the concentration of the PTE in soil (mg kg −1 ); IngR indicates the soil ingestion rate (200 mg day −1 for children and 100 mg day −1 for adults); EF represents the exposure frequency (75 mg year −1 for recreations); ED is the exposure duration (6 years for children and 30 years for residents); BW represents body weight (42.4 kg for children and 70.8 kg for adults); AT nc is the average time for non-carcinogenic effects (ED × 365); InhR indicates the soil inhalation rate (7.63 m 3 d −1 for children and 20 m 3 d −1 for adults); PEF is the soil-to-air particulate emission factor (1.36 × 10 9 m 3 kg −1 ); SA is the skin surface area available for exposure (2800 cm 2 event −1 for children and 5700 cm 2 event −1 for adults); AF is the soil-to-skin adherence factor (0.2 mg cm −2 for children and 0.07 mg cm −2 for adults); and ABS represents the dermal absorption factor (0.03 for As and 0.001 for other PTEs, unitless).…”

Chemical Fractionation, Environmental, and Human Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Soil of Industrialised Urban Areas in Serbia

“…Over the last 50 years, intensive technological and industrial development across the world has led to the development of new cities and industrial centres and the expansion of existing ones, housing more than half of today's global population [1]. Stimulated by economic development, this trend has resulted in the generation and accumulation of various pollutants, which have a major impact on the quality of life experienced by people in the urban environment [1,2]. The main sources of pollution in such environments are combustion products originating from traffic, city heating plants, individual furnaces, industry, construction activities, and also the inadequate storage of industrial and municipal waste [3,4].…”