Health Risks Assessment of Heavy Metals in Indoor and Outdoor Air Measured with x-ray Fluorescence

There are many growing concerns about environmental pollution and public health issues associated with surrounding heavy metals. Heavy metals are constantly emitted into the environment (indoor and outdoor) and pose a major threat to human health, the threat is linked to the presence of Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Cd, and Zn in dust, which consists of mineral and organic particles originating from the soil, industrial emitters, motor vehicles, and fuel consumption or other sources indoor like cooking, cigarettes etc. The present study aimed to investigate the potentially toxic metal (Zn, Fe, Cr, Ni, and Cu). Air dust samples were collected from indoor and outdoor air at El-Minia City, Egypt. Heavy metals concentrations were performed using X-ray fluorescence (WDX). Human health risk of the measured heavy metals concentration was evaluated. The concentrations of heavy metals were found higher outdoor than indoor except Cu concentration was higher in indoor (25010 +/- 3751.5 mg kg-1) compared to outdoor (50 +/- 7.5 mg kg-1). The results show a widespread heavy metal contamination, especially Cu and Fe, which were present as the highest values in indoor and outdoor dust, while Sr was the lowest content. Indoor and outdoor concentration ratios varied widely from one metal to another. A contamination factor is used to explain the originality of the measured heavy metals. The non-carcinogenic risk was assessed for adults and children via dermal contact route with order. In addition, non-cancerogenic risk values for heavy metals in El-Minia are not significant. Where, the calculated Hazard quotient (HQdermal) value was lower than the acceptable HQdermal value of 1 indicating no significant non-cancer risk to the people from exposure to these heavy metals at present.

Automated summary

There is a growing concern about environmental pollution and public health issues associated with heavy metals. This study aimed to investigate the concentrations of potentially toxic metals in indoor and outdoor air samples in El-Minia City, Egypt. The results showed widespread heavy metal contamination, especially with copper and iron, but the non-carcinogenic risks to the population were not significant.