A comparative study of elemental pollution and health risk assessment in urban dust of different land-uses in Tehran’s urban area

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) Vol. 241; p. 124984
• Main Authors: Mihankhah, Taraneh, Saeedi, Mohsen, Karbassi, Abdolreza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2020
• Subjects: Adult; Cancer risk; Carcinogens - analysis; Child; Dust; Dust - analysis; Ecological risk index; Ecology; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental Pollutants - analysis; Environmental Pollution - analysis; Hazard; Humans; Iran; Metals, Heavy - analysis; Pollution; Risk Assessment; Toxic element; Iran; Dust; Pollution; Ecological risk index; Toxic element; Hazard; Cancer risk
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.124984

Pollution levels of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) were studied performing enrichment factor, geo-accumulation index and ecological risk index. The most enriched elements which categorize as very high and extremely high enriched in different land-uses were in order of: commercial Cu (73.79)>Hg (66.55)>Pb (55.73)>Zn (46.15)>Cd (37.31); residential Pb (48.35)>Zn (34.79)>Cu (27.69)>Hg (22.96)>Cd (22.61) and industrial Zn (55.43)>Pb (51.52)>Cu (40.20)>Cd (26.29). In green lands sampling points, there weren’t any elements with enrichment factor more than twenty. Based on the result of geo-accumulation index, commercial land-use appeared to be highly polluted with Cu, Pb and Zn. Residential land-use were highly polluted just in case of lead and industrial land-use were categorized as highly polluted in case of Zn, Pb and Cu. Hakanson’s ecological risk index classified all of the land-uses except for green lands as very high ecological risk category. Factor analysis revealed that Cr, Mn, Ni, Fe and to a lesser extent Pb, Zn and As are from similar anthropogenic sources. Carcinogenic risk of Cr, Pb, As, Ni and Cd were found to be negligible for all land-uses for adult and children except for chromium in commercial land-use which exceed the safe level and need more attention in the future. •Pollution and health risk of PTMs in Tehran’s urban deposited dust were studied.•All land-uses except for green lands indicated very high ecological risk.•Commercial land-use showed the highest concentration of PTMs.•Concentrations of Pb, Zn and Cu in urban dust of Tehran were remarkable.•Cancer risk of PTMs investigated in this study categorized in negligible level.