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Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses

Because of the rising environmental and health concerns associated with atmospheric pollution caused by potentially toxic elements (PTEs), several road dust studies have been performed across the world in recent decades. This paper illustrates the effects of particle size on the PTE contents, minera...

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Autores principales: Navarro-Ciurana, Dídac, Corbella, Mercè, Meroño, Daniel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10488125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681795
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176655
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author Navarro-Ciurana, Dídac
Corbella, Mercè
Meroño, Daniel
author_facet Navarro-Ciurana, Dídac
Corbella, Mercè
Meroño, Daniel
author_sort Navarro-Ciurana, Dídac
collection PubMed
description Because of the rising environmental and health concerns associated with atmospheric pollution caused by potentially toxic elements (PTEs), several road dust studies have been performed across the world in recent decades. This paper illustrates the effects of particle size on the PTE contents, mineralogical composition, environmental pollution and health risk assessments in road dust from Barcelona (Spain). The samples were sieved into five size fractions ranging from <45 to 500–800 µm. Although the major mineral contents (tectosilicates, phyllosilicates, and carbonates) were profuse in all fractions, the identified inhalable PTE particles (e.g., Fe, Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, and REE), with size < 10 µm, were more pervasive in the finest fraction (<45 μm). This is consistent with the concentrations measured: the finest fractions were richer in PTEs than the coarser ones, resulting in a direct correlation with the enrichment factor (EF(x)), geo-accumulation (I(geo)), and non-carcinogenic (HI) and carcinogenic (CRI) values. I(geo) and EF(x) values can be appropriate tracers for some common elements (e.g., Zn, Sb, Sn, Cu, and Cr), but they do not seem adequate for anthropogenic particles accumulated at concentrations similar to the geogenic background. Overall, the HI and CRI values obtained in Barcelona were acceptable, reflecting no serious health impacts in the study area, except for Cr. Our results suggest that fine dust particles are a more suitable fraction to conduct pollution and health risk assessments than coarser ones, although the EF(x), I(geo), HI, and CRI threshold values should be redefined in the future to include all emergent pollutants as well. In summary, monitoring programs should include at least the road dust evaluation of <45 µm particles, which can be performed with a simple sieving method, which is both time- and cost-effective.
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spelling pubmed-104881252023-09-09 Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses Navarro-Ciurana, Dídac Corbella, Mercè Meroño, Daniel Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Because of the rising environmental and health concerns associated with atmospheric pollution caused by potentially toxic elements (PTEs), several road dust studies have been performed across the world in recent decades. This paper illustrates the effects of particle size on the PTE contents, mineralogical composition, environmental pollution and health risk assessments in road dust from Barcelona (Spain). The samples were sieved into five size fractions ranging from <45 to 500–800 µm. Although the major mineral contents (tectosilicates, phyllosilicates, and carbonates) were profuse in all fractions, the identified inhalable PTE particles (e.g., Fe, Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, and REE), with size < 10 µm, were more pervasive in the finest fraction (<45 μm). This is consistent with the concentrations measured: the finest fractions were richer in PTEs than the coarser ones, resulting in a direct correlation with the enrichment factor (EF(x)), geo-accumulation (I(geo)), and non-carcinogenic (HI) and carcinogenic (CRI) values. I(geo) and EF(x) values can be appropriate tracers for some common elements (e.g., Zn, Sb, Sn, Cu, and Cr), but they do not seem adequate for anthropogenic particles accumulated at concentrations similar to the geogenic background. Overall, the HI and CRI values obtained in Barcelona were acceptable, reflecting no serious health impacts in the study area, except for Cr. Our results suggest that fine dust particles are a more suitable fraction to conduct pollution and health risk assessments than coarser ones, although the EF(x), I(geo), HI, and CRI threshold values should be redefined in the future to include all emergent pollutants as well. In summary, monitoring programs should include at least the road dust evaluation of <45 µm particles, which can be performed with a simple sieving method, which is both time- and cost-effective. MDPI 2023-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10488125/ /pubmed/37681795 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176655 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Navarro-Ciurana, Dídac
Corbella, Mercè
Meroño, Daniel
Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses
title Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses
title_full Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses
title_fullStr Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses
title_full_unstemmed Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses
title_short Effects of Road Dust Particle Size on Mineralogy, Chemical Bulk Content, Pollution and Health Risk Analyses
title_sort effects of road dust particle size on mineralogy, chemical bulk content, pollution and health risk analyses
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10488125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37681795
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176655
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