Abstract
There is a lack of information on the effect of urban transport activities in emitting heavy elements into the environment. This research assesses the concentrations of some heavy elements in the deposited atmospheric dust at Yazd bus terminals in Yazd, Iran. So, 34 falling dust samples were collected from the leaves of trees planted near the bus terminals. Following the digestion by nitric acid, the total concentrations of cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), and manganese (Mn) were determined in the dust by atomic absorption spectrometry. The map representing the spatial distribution of the metals was plotted, and their sources were identified using Pearson's correlation coefficient, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis. The results indicated that the mean concentrations of the heavy metals in the dust deposited on the tree leaves were in the order of Cd < Co < Ni < Pb < Cu < Zn < Cr < Mn. The map representing the spatial distribution of the heavy metal concentrations illustrated that the abundance of metals in different stations varied with their location. Two main sources were detected for the heavy metals in the deposited dust. Co, Cd, Mn, and Ni had anthropogenic and lithogenic sources while Pb, Zn, Cr, and Cu were emitted by traffic and industrial activities. Enrichment factor, contamination factor, integrated pollution index, and risk index were estimated at low to extremely high levels of pollution in residential, commercial, green space, and environmental uses. Based on the results, the growth of industrialization and human activities contribute to the heavy metal contamination of the environment emitted into the atmosphere in Yazd.
Highlights
There is a lack of information about urban transport activity in adding heavy elements to the environment
The concentration of HMs in the falling dust from bus terminals using Duncan's method and comparison of means showed that the highest mean concentration of metal in dust was associated with Mn > Cr > Zn, respectively
According to the findings presented in Figure (2), the highest amount of cadmium is associated with the Qadir bus terminal
Summary
There is a lack of information about urban transport activity in adding heavy elements to the environment. This research assesses concentration some of heavy elements in the deposited atmospheric dust in Yazd bus terminals. Two important sources for the concentration of heavy metals in the deposited dust on the leaves were identified. The findings showed that the growth of industrialization and human activities had caused contamination of the environment by heavy metals emitted into the atmosphere of Yazd. Road and roadsides in urban areas are usually polluted with fine particles caused by traffic (Addo et al 2012). On soils of roadsides, buildings and vegetation (Zhang et al 2006) Most of these dust particles contain heavy metals. Pollutants and particulate matter in the air, including metal particles, cause damage to the environment and plants (Sawidis et al 2011). Due to the emissions of various environmental pollutants and their impacts on human health and other organisms, much attention has been paid to recognizing pollutants, how they are transported, function, and availability
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