Characterizing pollution indices and children health risk assessment of potentially toxic metal(oid)s in school dust of Lahore, Pakistan

Abdul Rehman; Guijian Liu; Balal Yousaf; Muhammad Zia-Ur-Rehman; Muhammad Ubaid Ali; Muhammad Saqib Rashid; Muhammad Raza Farooq; Zeeshan Javed

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.110059

Characterizing pollution indices and children health risk assessment of potentially toxic metal(oid)s in school dust of Lahore, Pakistan

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2020 Mar 1:190:110059. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.110059. Epub 2019 Dec 11.

Authors

Abdul Rehman¹, Guijian Liu², Balal Yousaf³, Muhammad Zia-Ur-Rehman⁴, Muhammad Ubaid Ali⁵, Muhammad Saqib Rashid⁶, Muhammad Raza Farooq⁷, Zeeshan Javed⁸

Affiliations

¹ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710075, PR China. Electronic address: abdulrehman008@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
² CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710075, PR China. Electronic address: lgj@ustc.edu.cn.
³ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China. Electronic address: balal@ustc.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38000, Punjab, Pakistan. Electronic address: ziasindhu1399@gmail.com.
⁵ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China. Electronic address: ubaid@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁶ CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, PR China. Electronic address: saqibssr@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁷ Advanced Laboratory for Functional Agriculture, Suzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou, 215123, Jiangsu, PR China. Electronic address: mrazamaan@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁸ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, PR China. Electronic address: zeeshan@mail.ustc.edu.cn.

PMID: 31837569
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.110059

Abstract

Toxic metal pollution is a renowned environmental concern, especially to sensitive environments like school classrooms and their association with children's health. The study was planned to determine the pollution characteristics of 13 potentially toxic metal (oid)s (PTMs) and their associated children's health risk assessment from school dust samples of considerably three land-use types (residential, roadside, and industrial areas) of Lahore, Pakistan. Geo-accumulation (I_geo), pollution (PI), integrated pollution (IPI) and pollution load (PLI) indexes were used to determine the PTMs contamination and USEPA health risk assessment models were employed to assess the health risks in children. The mean concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn for three land-use types were found much higher than the permissible limits. Results of pollution indices revealed that school dust was strongly contaminated with Cd, Pb, and Zn whilst moderately contaminated with Cr and Cu. Moreover, the health risk assessment models revealed no significant non-cancerous risks in children with predominantly highest hazardous index (HI) of Cr in industrial (4.61E-01) and Pb in both roadside (4.30E-01) and residential (2.26E-01) area schools. According to cumulative HI of all PTMs and exposure routes, the land-use areas were in descending order as industrial > roadside > residential. The calculations of hazardous quotient (HQ) showed ingestion was the leading pathway of PTMs exposure through school dust. For carcinogenic health risk (CR), the most prominent PTM was Cr with values of 1.53E-06 in industrial area schools, found close to the tolerable range (1.0E-06). Hence, school dust of Lahore prominently contaminated with eminent PTMs triggering slight health risks predominantly by ingestion exposure to children.

Keywords: Geo-accumulation index; Health risk assessment; Integrated pollution index; Pollution index; Pollution load index; Potentially toxic metal(oid)s.

MeSH terms

Carcinogens / analysis
Child
Dust / analysis*
Environmental Monitoring
Environmental Pollutants / analysis*
Environmental Pollutants / toxicity*
Environmental Pollution / analysis
Humans
Industry
Metals, Heavy / analysis*
Metals, Heavy / toxicity*
Pakistan
Risk Assessment
Schools
United States
United States Environmental Protection Agency

Substances

Carcinogens
Dust
Environmental Pollutants
Metals, Heavy