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

Featured Application Determining the intensity and spatial pattern of health risk caused by heavy metals in street dust helps in the proper management of the city's environment. 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 mu m). 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.

Automated summary

Evaluating the levels of hazard index and cancer risk for heavy metals in street dust collected in a small/medium-sized city in Poland showed that despite some elements having concentrations 6-7 times higher than the geochemical background, overall health risks remain low. Cancer risk for adults was below 10^(-4), with lower values for Pb, while children had higher risk levels around 10^(-4) except for Pb. The health risk for all metals except Cr was higher in 2013 compared to 2018.