Pollution and health risk assessment of arsenic in street dust and soil from an industrial zone

Abstract

Taking an industrial area in Wuhan as the research object, single factor index, Geoaccumulation index and EPA health risk model are utilized to evaluate the pollution pattern and health risk of arsenic (As) in street dust with different particle fractions and soil. The results showed that the content of As in street dust increased with the decrease of particle size. The average content of As in street dust with fine particle fraction and soil exceeded the soil background value of Hubei Province, but did not exceed the screening value of “Soil Environmental Quality Construction Site Soil Pollution Risk Control Standards (Trial)”. The content of As in soil had a high correlation with that of dust with < 63 particle fraction at the corresponding point, with high fit degree (R2=0.6012). There was moderate to heavy pollution of As in areas surrounding industrial enterprises like Wuhan Iron and Steel, cement plants, and areas with high traffic flow and construction sites. The As of street dust and soil at some points posed a non-carcinogenic risk to children, but no carcinogenic risk. The ingestion pathway was the largest non-carcinogenic exposure route of As in street dust and soil from the research area.