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Health risk assessment of inhalational exposure to heavy metals in drivers working in an urban desert city in the Middle East

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Abstract

Heavy metals are threatening the lives of people around the world. This study aims to quantify the adverse health risks of seven heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, lead, manganese, and nickel in taxi drivers in an urban desert city, Yazd, Iran. The exposure concentrations were determined through air sampling in the breathing zone of 40 randomly selected intercity taxi drivers, 20 in winter and 20 in summer, in 2019. An ICP-MAS spectrometer was applied to measure the elements. Target hazard quotient (THQ) and excessive cancer risk (ECR) indices were applied to calculate the non-cancer and cancer risks based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guidelines, respectively. The results showed that arsenic and lead had the highest exposure concentrations among the seven measured heavy metals while cobalt and chromium metals had the lowest concentrations. Arsenic, cadmium, manganese, and nickel would probably cause some adverse non-carcinogenic health problems (THQ > 1) in the drivers over their working life. The percentile 95% ECR of measured heavy metals was 1.3E − 03 in total, which is much higher than the value of 1E − 06. The concentration of arsenic and nickel was higher in winter than in summer. Taxi drivers in Yazd city are at considerable health risk; therefore, swift and serious controlling measures should be taken by responsible authorities. Besides, the taxi drivers should be educated about heavy metals’ health effects and their protective behaviors.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences for funding this study. The authors also thank all the drivers and those who contributed to this research.

Funding

Grant sponsor: Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Grant number: 7078.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Occupational Health Research Center, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

    Faeze Sepahi Zoeram

  2. Environmental Science and Technology Research Center, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

    Ali Asghar Ebrahimi

  3. Industrial Diseases Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

    Amir Houshang Mehrparvar

  4. Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Alireza Sarsangi Aliabad

  5. Research Center of Prevention and Epidemiology of Non Communicable Disease, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

    Hossein Fallah Zadeh

  6. Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran

    Hamidreza Mehri

  7. Occupational Health Research Center and Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

    Mohammad Javad Zare Sakhvidi

Authors
  1. Faeze Sepahi Zoeram
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  2. Ali Asghar Ebrahimi
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  3. Amir Houshang Mehrparvar
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  4. Alireza Sarsangi Aliabad
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  5. Hossein Fallah Zadeh
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  7. Mohammad Javad Zare Sakhvidi
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the conception, design, and analysis; drafted manuscript; revised manuscript and gave final approval; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work ensuring integrity and accuracy.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Javad Zare Sakhvidi.

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The protocol of the study was approved by the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical ethics committee (IR.SSU.SPH.REC.1398.005).

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The manuscript has not been and will not be published elsewhere or submitted elsewhere for publication. The manuscript is an original work of the authors. All the data, tables, figures, etc., used in the manuscript are prepared originally by the authors. The authors are completely accountable for all aspects of the work ensuring integrity and accuracy.

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Sepahi Zoeram, F., Ebrahimi, A.A., Mehrparvar, A.H. et al. Health risk assessment of inhalational exposure to heavy metals in drivers working in an urban desert city in the Middle East. Environ Monit Assess 194, 533 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10234-1

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