Heavy Metal Pollution in Settled Dust Associated with Different Urban Functional Areas in a Heavily Air-Polluted City in North China.

Dejun Wan,Jinsong Yang,Guanglin Yang,Xingqi Liu,Zhangxiong Han

doi:10.3390/ijerph13111119

Abstract

Understanding variations of heavy metals in atmospheric particles between different functional areas is significant for pollution control and urban planning in cities. To reveal pollution and spatial distribution of heavy metals in atmospheric particles from different urban functional areas in Shijiazhuang in North China, 43 settled dust samples were collected over the main urban area and heavy metal concentrations were determined in their <63 μm fractions using an ICP-OES. The results suggest that Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and V in the dust are not or slightly enriched and their concentrations vary slightly between different sites, implying their natural origins; whereas Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb are often notably enriched and their concentrations vary significantly between different functional areas, indicating their anthropogenic sources. Integrated pollution indexes (IPIs) of the ten heavy metals are 2.7–13.6 (5.7 ± 2.2), suggesting high or very high pollution levels of most dust. Relatively lower IPIs occur mainly in the administration-education area, the commercial area, and other unclassified sites; while peaks occur mainly in the North Railway Station, the northeastern industrial area, and some sites near heavily trafficked areas, implying the significant influence of intensive industrial (including coal combustion) and traffic activities on atmospheric heavy metal accumulation. These results suggest a clear need of mitigating atmospheric heavy metal pollution via controlling emissions of toxic metals (especially Cd and Pb) from industrial and traffic sources in the city.

Highlights

Heavy metals adhered on atmospheric particles lead to health impacts for humans and other living beings via direct inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact absorption, and impose a long-term burden on environmental quality in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems [1,2,3]
Heavy metals in atmospheric particles originate from natural sources such as crustal minerals, volcanic eruptions, forest fire, etc., but most environmental pollution and human exposures are caused by anthropogenic activities such as mining, smelting, industrial production and use, vehicular traffic, fossil fuel combustion, domestic and agricultural use of metals and metal-containing compounds, and so on [2,3,4]
Among the ten heavy metals, Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn are the dominant (86%) contributors to the Integrated pollution indexes (IPIs), IPIs, and Pollutionindexes indexes (PIs) of these four metals vary significantly over the urban area

Summary

Introduction

Heavy metals adhered on atmospheric particles lead to health impacts for humans and other living beings via direct inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact absorption, and impose a long-term burden on environmental quality in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems [1,2,3]. Heavy metals in atmospheric particles originate from natural sources such as crustal minerals, volcanic eruptions, forest fire, etc., but most environmental pollution and human exposures are caused by anthropogenic activities such as mining, smelting, industrial production and use, vehicular traffic, fossil fuel combustion, domestic and agricultural use of metals and metal-containing compounds, and so on [2,3,4]. Public Health 2016, 13, 1119; doi:10.3390/ijerph13111119 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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