Source identification of heavy metals and stable carbon isotope in indoor dust from different functional areas in Hefei, China

Li Zhou; Guijian Liu; Mengchen Shen; Ruoyu Hu; Yuan Liu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135599

Source identification of heavy metals and stable carbon isotope in indoor dust from different functional areas in Hefei, China

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Mar 25:710:135599. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135599. Epub 2019 Nov 18.

Authors

Li Zhou¹, Guijian Liu², Mengchen Shen³, Ruoyu Hu³, Yuan Liu³

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710075, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710075, China. Electronic address: lgj@ustc.edu.cn.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.

PMID: 31784146
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135599

Abstract

Dust on air conditioning filters can represent the re-suspended particulate matter in indoor air, which may pose potential health risks to humans. However, source identification and influence factors of indoor dust are controversial. The present study investigated the distribution of Cd, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, V, and Zn, as well as stable carbon isotope, in indoor dust from three different functional zones in Hefei to discuss the sources and influence factors of indoor dust. PCA analysis of heavy metals showed that indoor sources (such as cooking and smoking) were the main sources. Negative correlation appeared between family size and heavy metal concentrations. This was because people acted as a sink of pollutants. Concentration analysis of heavy metals revealed that smoking and cooking had weak relevance with heavy metal concentrations. While through the δ¹³C analysis, cooking had a significant correlation with δ¹³C of indoor dust, instructing that cooking was a significant source of indoor dust. Besides, smoking also had a certain correlation with δ¹³C of indoor dust, instructing that smoking was one of the sources of indoor dust.

Keywords: Heavy metals; Indoor dust; Source identification; Stable carbon isotope.