Abstract
Depending on their particle size and concentration, heavy metals in urban dust pose a health hazard to humans. This study investigated the total concentration, health risk, integrated pollution load index (IPI), and enrichment factor (EF) of various heavy metals in urban dust at different locations in Riyadh City. Surface dust samples were collected from 50 different residential yards in the north, south, west, east, and central corners of the city and analyzed for cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn). With respect to concentrations heavy metals were in the following order Zn > Cu > Mn > Cr > Ni > Pb > Cd. The EF trends exposed repeated anthropogenic activities were responsible for Mn, Cr, and Ni, while Pb, Zn, and Cu appeared to come from Earth’s crust. Since the heavy metal concentrations were lower than the threshold values, children and adults are exposed to lower health risk in investigated area. Also, there are no pollution of heavy metals in the dust with respect to IPI which is less than the critical limit (<1) with the exception of a sampling location in north side of the city with higher IPI showed unhealthy respiration conditions in particular areas. It was concluded that rapid industrialization and urbanization and their concentrations in dust may cause health problems in near future in north side as well as other sides of Riyadh City.
Highlights
Dust storms are frequently produced by powerful constant winds acting on loose, fine, and dry soil
The primary aim of this study was to identify the particle size distribution of surface dust associated with different areas of the Riyadh city, and to determine the heavy metal concentration in surface dust and calculate the risk to human health
Riyadh city is the capital of Saudi Arabia, with the following geographical points: latitude 24 ̊-08 ̊ north and longitude 47 ̊-18 ̊ east
Summary
Dust storms are frequently produced by powerful constant winds acting on loose, fine, and dry soil. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is vulnerable to dust storms because of the sparse vegetative cover, drought, light-textured topsoil, and topography [1]. Riyadh’s capital city is surrounded by desert and is at an altitude of 600 m; it is subjected to numerous dust storms throughout the year. Al-Tayeb and Jarrar [2] estimated that an average of 220-ton km−2 year−1 of dust falls on Riyadh. Issues associated with dust storms have been highlighted in other countries of Asia, such as China, Japan, and Korea [2]. Chang et al [3] found that the frequency of emergency visits to National Taiean University Hospital and Shin Guang
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