Abstract
Road dust continues to be a major potential reservoir of Pb in the urban environment, and an important potential component of child Pb exposure. This study presents ICP-AES analyses of metals in 72 samples of road dust (<250 µm) collected in the urban core of Atlanta, Georgia. In the Downtown area, median Pb concentrations are ~63 mg/kg Pb, with high values of 278 mg/kg. For comparison, median Pb values in a nearby residential neighborhood (also in the urban core) were ~93 mg/kg, with a high of 972 mg/kg. Geospatial variability is high, with significant variation observed over tens to hundreds of meters. Spearman Rank Correlation tests suggest that Pb and other metals (Cu, Ni, V, Zn) are associated with iron and manganese oxide phases in the residential area, as reported in other cities. However, Pb in the Downtown area is not correlated with the others, suggesting a difference in source or transport history. Given these complexities and the expected differences between road dust and soil Pb, future efforts to assess exposure risk should therefore be based on spatially distributed sampling at very high spatial resolution.
Highlights
Significant progress has been made worldwide over the past half century in reducing child Pb poisoning rates
Road dust Pb concentrations are highly variable in both neighborhoods (Table 1)
The median value for the combined dataset is 85 mg/kg (n = 74); the commercial downtown area has somewhat lower road dust Pb concentrations compared to the residential neighborhood
Summary
Significant progress has been made worldwide over the past half century in reducing child Pb poisoning rates. About 250,000 children in the US have blood lead levels over the current Level of Concern of 10 μg/dL [2] This number is likely to double as the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers the recommendation of its advisory body to lower the Level of Concern from 10 μg/dL to 5 μg/dL [3]. This major change in national policy is based on a large and growing body of evidence showing that even single-digit blood Pb levels have significant impacts on Intelligence Quotients, Attention Deficit. If CDC finalizes this change, the World Health Organization will likely consider a similar move, potentially impacting the
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