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Contamination characteristics of trace metals in dust from different levels of roads of a heavily air-polluted city in north China

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Abstract

Concentrations of eight trace metals (TMs) in road dust (RD) (particles < 25 μm) from urban areas of Xinxiang, China, were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The geometric mean concentrations of Zn, Mn, Pb, As, Cu, Cr, Ni and Cd were 489, 350, 114, 101, 60.0, 39.7, 31.6, and 5.1 mg kg−1, respectively. When compared with TM levels in background soil, the samples generally display elevated TM concentrations, except for Cr and Mn, and for Cd the enrichment value was 69.6. Spatial variations indicated TMs in RD from park path would have similar sources with main roads, collector streets and bypasses. Average daily exposure doses of the studied TMs were about three orders of magnitude higher for hand-to-mouth ingestion than dermal contact, and the exposure doses for children were 9.33 times higher than that for adults. The decreasing trend of calculated hazard indexes (HI) for the eight elements was As > Pb > Cr > Mn > Cd > Zn > Ni > Cu for both children and adults.

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Acknowledgements

The research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (21607038), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M570629, 2016T90668), the Scientific Research Starting Foundation (5101219170102) and Science Foundation (5101219279007) of Henan Normal University and Science and Technology Research Project of Henan Province (162102110090).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Henan Normal University, Key Laboratory for Yellow River and Huai River Water Environment and Pollution Control, Ministry of Education, Henan Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Control, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Zhiguo Cao, Qiaoying Chen, Xiaoying Wang, Yajie Zhang, Shihua Wang, Mengmeng Wang, Leicheng Zhao, Guangxuan Yan, Xin Zhang, Ziyang Zhang, Tianfang Yang, Mohai Shen & Jianhui Sun

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory for Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Zhiguo Cao

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  1. Zhiguo Cao
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Cao, Z., Chen, Q., Wang, X. et al. Contamination characteristics of trace metals in dust from different levels of roads of a heavily air-polluted city in north China. Environ Geochem Health 40, 2441–2452 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-018-0110-3

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