Pollution characteristics and risk assessment of human exposure to oral bioaccessibility of heavy metals via urban street dusts from different functional areas in Chengdu, China

Abstract

Urban street dusts were collected in commercial area (CA), traffic area (TA), educational area (EA), residential area (RA) and parks area (PA) of Chengdu, China, to investigate the concentrations of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd and Cr), and analyzed to evaluated possible sources and health risk assessment. The average concentrations (mg/kg) of Pb (82.3), Zn (296), Cu (100), Cd (1.66) and Cr (84.3) in urban street dusts were all higher than the local soil background values. The concentrations of heavy metals in each functional area could be classified as follows: CA>TA>RA>EA>PA. Principal component analysis and Cluster analysis showed mainly derived from the mixed sources of nature and traffic (51.7%). The results of health risk assessment showed no non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks of the metals for inhabitants. However, higher concentrations and oral bioaccessibility of the heavy metals in the dusts from CA and TA, indicating there was more health risks to the inhabitants in than that in other functional areas.

Keywords: Functional areas; Heavy metals; Oral bioaccessibility; Risk assessment; Urban street dust.