Search

Human health is threatened by significant emissions of heavy metals into the urban environment due to various activities. Various studies describing health risk analyses on soil and dust have been conducted previously. However, there are limited studies that have been carried out regarding the potential health risk assessment of heavy metals in urban road dust of < 63-μm diameter, via incidental ingestion, dermal contact, and inhalation exposure routes by children and adults in developing countries. Therefore, this study evaluated the health risks of heavy metal exposure via ingestion, dermal contact, and inhalation of urban dust particles in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Heavy metals such as lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and manganese (Mn) were measured using dust samples obtained from industrial, high-traffic, commercial, and residential areas by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The principal component and hierarchical cluster analysis showed the dominance of these metal concentrations at sites associated with anthropogenic activities. This was suggestive of industrial, traffic emissions, atmospheric depositions, and wind as the significant contributors towards urban dust contamination in the study sites. Further exploratory analysis underlined Cr, Pb, Cu, and Zn as the most representative metals in the dust samples. In accommodating the uncertainties associated with health risk calculations and simulating the reasonable maximum exposure of these metals, the related health risks were estimated at the 75th and 95th percentiles. Furthermore, assessing the exposure to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic metals in the dust revealed that ingestion was the primary route of consumption. Children who ingested dust particles in Petaling Jaya could be more vulnerable to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks, but the exposure for both children and adults showed no potential health effects. Therefore, this study serves as an important premise for a review and reformation of the existing environmental quality standards for human health safety.

Anthropogenic emission is on the increase in urban cities due to increased human activities. However, the pollution level of heavy metals in urban environments due to emission from various anthropogenic sources could attain toxic levels to humans and biota. The roadside dust collected from Petaling Jaya, Malaysia was analysed for Pb, Cr, Cu, Cd, As, Ni, and Fe by using ZEE nit 650 P Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy. The contamination levels of these metals were assessed in terms of the geoaccumulation index (Igeo), enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (Cf), and integrated pollution index (IPI). The result of the principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) revealed that the variations found in different concentrations of heavy metals were mainly due to industrial and traffic emissions. The computed results of Igeo and EF of heavy metals in urban dust suggested that there were pollutions of Cd, Cu, Pb, and As. Meanwhile, Igeo and EF of Ni, Cr, and Fe were very low and posed no serious pollution. The Cf and IPI assessments also indicated that Cd, Cu, and Pb were the major pollutants in Petaling Jaya urban dust. On the other hand, the potential ecological risks for single element (Er) confirmed the IPI results and the potential ecological risk index (RI) indicated that generally, the degree of pollution of heavy metals in roadside dust of PJ was considerable. These results could help in the development of suitable management strategies to minimise pollution by using various remediation methods in Petaling Jaya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]