Heavy Metals in Urban Street Dust: Health Risk Assessment (Lublin City, E Poland)

• Main Authors: Wojciech Zgłobicki, Małgorzata Telecka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: geochemistry; public health; urban environment
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/9/4092

Various pollutants, including heavy metals, present in street dust can pose a threat to the health of city dwellers. So far, studies on levels of this threat have been carried out mainly in large cities, characterised by considerable road traffic and industrial activity. This paper assesses the levels of hazard index and cancer risk for Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn contained in street dust collected in 2013 and 2018 at 62 points located in different parts of a small/medium-sized city (Lublin, E Poland). Heavy metals contents were analysed by means of XRF spectrometry (in the fraction <63 µm). Despite the fact that the concentrations of some elements (Zn, Cd and Cu) in street dust are 6–7 times higher than the geochemical background, this does not pose a risk of non-carcinogenic effects. The average hazard index (HI) for the individual elements reaches very low levels (<0.01). Cancer risk (CR) for adults is below the less strict limit of 10⁻⁴, and in the case of Pb, it is even lower than values of the order of 10⁻⁶, whereas for children, CR levels exceed the standards and are of the order of 10⁻⁴, except for Pb. For all metals except Cr, the health risk was higher in 2013 than in 2018.