Pollution characteristics and human health risks of potentially (eco)toxic elements (PTEs) in road dust from metropolitan area of Hefei, China

Muhammad Ubaid Ali; Guijian Liu; Balal Yousaf; Qumber Abbas; Habib Ullah; Mehr Ahmed Mujtaba Munir; Biao Fu

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.04.061

Pollution characteristics and human health risks of potentially (eco)toxic elements (PTEs) in road dust from metropolitan area of Hefei, China

Chemosphere. 2017 Aug:181:111-121. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.04.061. Epub 2017 Apr 14.

Authors

Muhammad Ubaid Ali¹, Guijian Liu², Balal Yousaf³, Qumber Abbas⁴, Habib Ullah⁵, Mehr Ahmed Mujtaba Munir⁶, Biao Fu⁷

Affiliations

¹ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710075, PR China. Electronic address: ubaid@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
² CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710075, PR China. Electronic address: lgj@ustc.edu.cn.
³ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710075, PR China. Electronic address: balal@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁴ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China. Electronic address: qumber@mail.ustc.edu.com.
⁵ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China. Electronic address: habib901@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁶ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China. Electronic address: muju212@ustc.edu.cn.
⁷ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China. Electronic address: fubiao@mail.ustc.edu.cn.

PMID: 28433929
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.04.061

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the pollution characteristics of road dust and their associated health risks of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) to humans using array-based risk assessment models described by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in a metropolitan area of Hefei, China. Geoaccumulation index (I_geo) was used to describe pollution characteristics of roadside dust in urban, periurban and industrial areas. Results indicate that industrial roadside dust was contaminated with Fe, Ni, Cu, Ti, V, Pb, Ba, Sb, Cr, Sn, Pb, As and Ga showing I_geo value (log₂ (x)) between I_geo class 3 to 4. In other hand, urban roadside dust contamination with Cu, Zn, Sb and Ga ranged between I_geo classes 2 to 3 and with As and Pb ranged between I_geo classes 4 to 5. Furthermore, health risk assessment revealed negligible non-cancerous health hazard in all sites including urban, periurban and industrial areas. The hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard Index (HI) values for all exposure routes (ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact) were <1 except for chromium with HI value of 1.06E+00 in industrial areas. Moreover, the most prominent exposure route was ingestion (HQ_ing) and the non-carcinogenic health risks were found to be high in case of children compared to the adults. The cancer risk from As, Co, Cr, Ni, and Pb was found to be in safe levels as the RI (carcinogenic risks) values were below the limits for carcinogens (1.00E-6 to 1.00E-4).

Keywords: Health risk; Pollution characteristics; Potential toxic elements; Road dust; Urban-industrial areas.

MeSH terms

Adult
Child
China
Dust / analysis*
Environmental Exposure / analysis
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Environmental Pollution / analysis*
Humans
Industrial Development
Metals, Heavy / analysis*
Risk Assessment
United States
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Urbanization

Substances

Dust
Metals, Heavy