Urban street dust in the Middle East oldest oil refinery zone: Oxidative potential, source apportionment، and health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements

Hamideh Naraki; Behnam Keshavarzi; Mehdi Zarei; Farid Moore; Sajjad Abbasi; Frank J Kelly; Ana Oliete Dominguez; Neemat Jaafarzadeh

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128825

Urban street dust in the Middle East oldest oil refinery zone: Oxidative potential, source apportionment، and health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements

Chemosphere. 2021 Apr:268:128825. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128825. Epub 2020 Oct 29.

Authors

Hamideh Naraki¹, Behnam Keshavarzi², Mehdi Zarei¹, Farid Moore¹, Sajjad Abbasi¹, Frank J Kelly³, Ana Oliete Dominguez³, Neemat Jaafarzadeh⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth Sciences, College of Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, 71454, Iran.
² Department of Earth Sciences, College of Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, 71454, Iran. Electronic address: bkeshavarzi@shirazu.ac.ir.
³ MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK.
⁴ Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

PMID: 33160655
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128825

Abstract

The current study is the intented to investigate the intensity of pollution, source characterization, oxidative potential, and human health risks of fourteen potentially toxic elements in the street dust of the Middle East oldest oil refinery zone. Thirty five street dust samples were collected from various regions in Abadan and Khorramshahr cities. The mean concentration of As, Mo, Cu, Pb, Hg, Zn, Cd, and Sb in Abadan street dust were 5.55, 3.39, 83.68, 49.82, 4493.54, 281.24, 1.15,and 1.17, while in Khorramshahr As, Mo, Cu, Pb, Hg, Zn, Cd, and Sb were.14, 2.58, 74.35, 56.50, 0.74, 214.26, 0.62, and 1.18, respectively. The concentration of these elements in both cities is higher than the local background values. Potential ecological risk index and pollution load index at all stations of both cities are greater than 1, indicating a high pollution load in the study area. Calculated enrichment factor showed high enrichment of Hg, Sb, Cd, Mo, Cu, Pb, and Zn in both areas. Of particular concern is the enrichment factor for mercury which proved to be 3370.54 ppb in the vicinity of the petrochemical unit in Abadan city (EF > 40). The results of positive matrix factorization receptor model together with geochemical maps and multivariate statistics indicated that industrial activities (especially petrochemical industries) are responsible for Hg, Cu, and Zn pollution, while exhaust emissions are responsible for Mo, Pb, Cd, and Sb, and natural sources for Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni. The percentage of OP^AA in the region ranged from 15.1 to 26.4 and OP^GSH ranged from 9.5 to 24.4. The percentage of OP_TOTAL/μg (OP^AA/μg + OP^GSH/μg) values varied between 0.6 and 1. The health risk evaluation models indicated that specific attention should be paid to Hg, Cd, Pb, and Zn and that the higher oxidative potential of street dust recovered from polluted locations is also a matter of concern in Abadan and Khorramshahr Cities.

Keywords: Dust; Health effects; Oxidative potential (OP); Positive matrix factorization; origin characterization.

MeSH terms

China
Cities
Dust* / analysis
Environmental Monitoring
Humans
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Middle East
Oil and Gas Industry
Oxidative Stress
Risk Assessment

Substances

Dust
Metals, Heavy

Abstract

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding