Spatial distribution and human health risk assessment of mercury in street dust resulting from various land-use in Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

Mercury as a toxic element and its associated health hazard has been an important topic of research for urban pollution for many years. In this paper, the spatial distribution, pollution assessment, and health risk associated with Hg in roadside dust 96 street dust samples, representing differing land uses have been investigated. Land uses included residential areas (RA), industrial areas (IA), public gardens (PG), roadside areas (RS) and suburban areas (SA) in the city of Ahvaz, Iran were investigated. Compared with other cities, the concentration of Hg in Ahvaz was considerably higher with a mean value of 2.53 mg.kg . Residential areas exhibited higher Hg in street dust than other areas, as demonstrated by spatial mapping illustrating hot-spots associated with old urban areas with high residential density, high volume traffic of roadside areas, and industrial districts: including oil-drilling activities, steel smelting related industries, and small industrial towns around Ahvaz. However, Hg concentrations in street dust near to the public gardens (PG) and suburban areas (SA) were not at elevated levels compared other land uses investigated in this study. A health risk assessment model of non-carcinogenic effects was evaluated for both children and adults. The HQ values also revealed that the main exposures route for children and adults decreased as follows: vapour>ingestion> dermal contact> inhalation. The Hazard Index (HI) in each area is less than the safe level (HI≤1) for children and adults, but higher for children. The HI value decrease as the following order: RS>IA>RA>SA>PG, which indicates potentially serious health hazards for children in the study areas.

Mercury soil contents and associated ecological and health risks in kindergartens and functional areas of the city of Vanadzor (Armenia)

“…RfD value for ingestion is 3.0•10 -4 (we used RfD for inorganic mercury (RAIS 2018), as in soil, water and sediments inorganic mercury salts are prevalent (Lymberidi 2005)). RfD values for skin absorption and inhalation are 2.10•10 -5 and 8.57•10 -5 , respectively (Nazarpour et al 2017); HQ<1 denotes the absence of noncarcinogenic risk, whereas HQ>1 means a hazardous effect to human health (US EPA 2002a;RAIS 2018) where CDI is daily intake from i -route: the sum of HQ value calculated for each of three routes represents HI -a hazard index, HI = ∑HQ (US EPA 1989).…”

Status, source, ecological and health risk assessment of toxic metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in street dust of Abadan, Iran

“…Emissions from activities relating to rapid urbanisation, industrial plants and vehicular traffic in megacities provide challenges for urban and residential environments. Urban street dust particles are one of the indices for monitoring environmental urban contaminants (Brown and Peake, 2006;Nazarpour et al, 2017b;Babaei et al, 2018), such as toxic metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that present potential harm to community health (Tang et al, 2013, Saeedi et al, 2012Soltani et al, 2015). Dermal and hand to mouth contact can result in direct exposure to such contaminated dust particles, especially in the case of children in school grounds, parks and city side roads (Ghanavati et al, 2018).…”

“…Dermal and hand to mouth contact can result in direct exposure to such contaminated dust particles, especially in the case of children in school grounds, parks and city side roads (Ghanavati et al, 2018). The source of toxic metals in street dust can be petroleum, industrial sources, vehicle emissions and geogenic/geochemical routes, such as weathering of parent materials, construction, roadside and atmospheric dust accumulation (Gunawardana et al, 2012, Nazarpour et al, 2017b. Toxic elements are not decomposable and reside in the soil/dust environment for a long time or can be resuspended into the atmosphere, presenting a potential hazard to human health (Cook et al, 2005, Zarasvandi et al, 2011Ghanavati., 2018).…”

“…They can present a major and permanent hazard to environmental security and human health, and for these reasons they are of major concern in recent studies (Dong and Lee, 2009;Nazarpour et al, 2017b).…”

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

“…Industrial development as well as increasing population and number of vehicles in Ahvaz increased heavy metals deposition in street dust particles. Ahvaz city was one of those cities heavily polluted in the world (13). However, it is still not clear about the spatial distribution patterns and contamination levels of heavy metals in street dust in the industrial zones of Ahvaz.…”