Children exposure to trace levels of heavy metals at the north zone of Kifissos River

Abstract

This study evaluates the exposure level of primary school children at three different towns in northern Attica, near the banks of the Kifissos River, defining referential values of toxic heavy metals. Concentrations of five toxic metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead and nickel) were analyzed in water samples from the Kifissos River as well as in the scalp hair of children aged 11 to 12 years old living in the study area. Chronic low-level toxicity of lead and cadmium came into view in recent years as a problem of our civilization. Exposure to concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb) poses a potential threat to humans and can cause effects on children's renal and dopaminergic systems without clear evidence of a threshold, a fact that reinforces the need to control all the potential heavy metal emissions into the environment in order to protect children's health. The results were analyzed with the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 for Windows. The possible influence of sex and area was examined. Statistical differences were observed by t-test between the log-transformed hair concentrations of lead (p=0.021), arsenic (p=0.016) and nickel (p=0.038) in children's scalp hair from the municipalities of Kifisia and Kryoneri. ANOVA one-way test confirmed the difference of Pb concentration in hair between girls and boys from the municipality of Kifisia (p=0.038). The t-test confirms the difference of heavy metal concentrations in river samples between the municipalities Kifisia and Philadelphia in comparison with the samples from Kryoneri. The observations suggest that children living at the municipality of Kifisia are exposed to higher concentrations of heavy metals than the others. Despite all the confounding factors, hair can be used as a biomarker in order to determine the exposure to heavy metals, according to standardized protocols.