Abstract
Heavy metals are the harmful elements, regarded as carcinogens. Nevertheless, owing to their physical and chemical properties, they are still used in the production of several commercial products. Utilization of such products increases the chance for the exposure of heavy metals, some of them are categorized as probable human carcinogens (Group 1) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Exposure of heavy metals to school children at early age can result severe life time health issues and high chance of emerging cancer. Thus, we have performed study relating to the presence of heavy metals in acrylic color paints commonly used by the school children. Acrylic paints of different colors were assayed for seven potential heavy metals manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) using microwave digestion and iCAPQ inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) system. The optimized method including paints digestion reagents nitric acid (HNO3, 65%, 5 mL) and hydrofluoric acid (HF, 40%, 2 mL) have offered excellent method performance with recovery values ranged between 99.33% and 105.67%. The elements were identified in all of the analyzed samples with concentrations ranged from 0.05 to 372.59 µg/g. Cd constitutes the lower percentage (0.05%), whereas Zn constitutes high ratio contribution which was tremendously high (68.33%). Besides, the paints contamination was also color specific, with considerably total heavy metal concentrations found in brunt umber (526.57 µg/g) while scarlet color (12.62 µg/g) contained lower amounts. The outcomes of our investigation highlight the necessity for guidelines addressing the heavy metals in acrylic color paints intended for the school children usage.
Highlights
Environmental health risk by means of colorants based on heavy metals is a persistent menace to humans, children of early age
0.1 g dried paint samples was placed in the pressure vessels of the microwave digestion system followed by the addition of the digesting reagents HNO3 (65%, 5 mL) and HF (40%, 2 mL)
Acrylic color paints commonly used by school children were highly contaminated with the heavy metals Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, As, Cd and Pb, with the maximum metal amounts identified in samples being 372.59 μg/g
Summary
Environmental health risk by means of colorants based on heavy metals is a persistent menace to humans, children of early age. The capability of heavy metals to enter into the systemic circulation system through dermal absorption and percolation may cause their agglomeration and subsequent adverse influences [9,10,11] They are identified as universal toxicants recognized to cause several kinds of organ damage, even after exposure to minor amounts [11]. Cd exposure produces skin tumors and toxicity to the kidneys [23], Cd is readily retained in the proximal tubular cells of the human body It accumulates over the course of a lifetime which results in bone demineralization either via bone damage or as a result of renal dysfunction [24]. Mn exposure leads to a neurodegenerative illness that causes dopaminergic neuronal death [25,26]
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