Abstract
The prevalence of potentially toxic heavy metals (HMs)-bearing dust in the environment is posing serious health risks to humans. Therefore, the occurrence of HMs in indoor and outdoor dust samples of elementary school’s environment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were reported, and associated potential human health risks were estimated in this study. Dust samples were collected from outdoor and indoor environments from eighteen elementary schools using a soft plastic brush. The mean concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in collected indoor dust samples were much higher (0.08, 3.45, 59.20, 15.20, 4.99, and 94.10 mg kg−1, respectively) than that of outdoor dust samples (0.07, 3.07, 42.20, 13.60, 4.57, and 62.40 mg kg−1, respectively), due to fans operation, opened windows, and resuspension of dust by children’s activities. The values of estimated enrichment factor revealed that both the outdoor and indoor dusts were moderately contaminated with Zn and Cu, while highly contaminated with Cd and Pb. However, the estimated potential ecological risks associated with HMs were lower. Health risks (non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic) calculations exhibited no potential risks of HMs in the schools’ dust toward children. However, health risks for children were determined in the following order: up to 6 years > 6–12 years > adults. Therefore, assessing the potential health risks posed by HM-contaminated dust in school environments is necessary to avoid any possible children’s health concerns.
Highlights
Urban development and industrialization to fulfil infrastructure network, commercial, traffic, and residential needs have resulted in environmental degradation globally [1–3]
The current study assessed the levels of heavy metals and associated health risks in outdoor and indoor dust samples collected from 18 different elementary schools’ environments in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The health risks estimation revealed that both hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) were lower than 1, suggesting no potential risk to the children exposed to dust in school’s environments
Summary
Urban development and industrialization to fulfil infrastructure network, commercial, traffic, and residential needs have resulted in environmental degradation globally [1–3]. Dust is considered as one of the major sources for HMs pollution, which in turn is accumulating in topsoil through atmospheric deposition [6]. Heavy metals emitted by various natural and anthropogenic sources, such as industrial emissions, agricultural activities, road dust, traffic emissions, municipal waste incineration, construction activities, and oil combustion are being introduced into various environmental compartments via dust deposition [6–8]. Being close to busy roads, construction activities, and residential areas, schools are very susceptible to dust pollution, due to the transportation of dust to the indoor environment by ventilation as well as by open doors and windows [9–11]. Guo et al [13] found that the air exchange rate was higher during school hours, owing to open windows leading to the indoor to outdoor (I/O) ratio exceeding 1
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