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. 2022 Aug 11;10(8):466.
doi: 10.3390/toxics10080466.

Spatial Distribution, Contamination Levels, and Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Household Dust in Cairo City, Egypt

Ahmed Gad  1 , Ahmed Saleh  2 , Hassan I Farhat  3 , Yehia H Dawood  1 , Sahar M Abd El Bakey  4
Affiliations

Spatial Distribution, Contamination Levels, and Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Household Dust in Cairo City, Egypt

Ahmed Gad et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

Urban areas’ pollution, which is owing to rapid urbanization and industrialization, is one of the most critical issues in densely populated cities such as Cairo. The concentrations and the spatial distribution of fourteen potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in household dust were investigated in Cairo City, Egypt. PTE exposure and human health risk were assessed using the USEPA’s exposure model and guidelines. The levels of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mo, Ni, Pb, and Zn surpassed the background values. Contamination factor index revealed that contamination levels are in the sequence Cd > Hg > Zn > Pb > Cu > As > Mo > Ni > Cr > Co > V > Mn > Fe > Al. The degree of contamination ranges from considerably to very high pollution. Elevated PTE concentrations in Cairo’s household dust may be due to heavy traffic emissions and industrial activities. The calculated noncarcinogenic risk for adults falls within the safe limit, while those for children exceed that limit in some sites. Cairo residents are at cancer risk owing to prolonged exposure to the indoor dust in their homes. A quick and targeted plan must be implemented to mitigate these risks.

Keywords: Cairo; exposure; indoor dust; pollution; potentially toxic elements; risk assessment; urban.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map displaying Cairo City and its administrative regions and sampling site’s locations.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Spatial distribution of PTEs in household dust in Cairo City.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Spatial distribution of PTEs in household dust in Cairo City.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Boxplots of Cf values: New Cairo; (b) eastern region; (c) northern region; (d) western region; (e) southern region; (f) all samples.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Boxplots of Cdeg values.
Figure 5
Figure 5
HCA dendrogram.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) PCA variable loading: 3D loading between the extracted 3 components; (b) 2D loading between PC1 and PC2 combined with sampling sites.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Boxplots of noncancer risk for children; (b) for adults; (c) pie chart showing individual element contribution (%) for noncarcinogenic risk.
Figure 8
Figure 8
(a) Boxplots of cancer risk; (b) pie chart showing individual element contribution (%) for cancer risk.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Spatial distribution of HI for children and adults and CR risks for the household dust exposure in Cairo City.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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