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Contamination and risk levels of metals associated with urban street dust in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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Abstract

Urban street dust was collected from 22 locations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and nine metals (Pb, Cr, Zn, Co, Cu, Al, Fe, Mn, and Ni) were investigated. The concentrations of these metals were employed in several common contamination evaluation indices to examine the contamination and the health risk caused by metals. Evaluation of these indices showed that they had variable degrees of contamination sensitivity. For individual contaminating elements (Pb, Cr, Zn, Co, Cu, and Ni), the sensitivities of the contamination of contamination factor (CF), the potential ecological risk (Ei), and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) were very similar. Therefore, these indices should yield very similar results. However, enrichment factor (EF) exhibited a different sensitivity pattern for determining the contamination caused by metals compared with the contamination level indicated by the other indices used in this study. Therefore, to avoid potential false indication of contamination, it is not recommended to use EF alone for determining contamination level. As indicated by four contamination evaluation indices (CF, Ei, Igeo, and EF), Riyadh was mainly contaminated by Pb. However, the health risk assessment results revealed that the Pb contamination level did not exceed the significant risk level for non-cancer effects. The cancer risk values indicated a negligible cancer risk to inhabitants of Riyadh exposed to metals associated with street dust. Considering the comprehensive contamination evaluation indices, the ecological risk index (RI) showed that about 77% of the sampling locations featured high ecological risk of which approximately 41% also featured high contamination indicated by pollution load index (PLI).

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the support and the assistance received by a large group of field workers, lab technicians, and research assistants in National Centre for Environmental Technology NCET.

Funding

This work was conducted as a part of the research project grant No. 32-594 from King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Environmental Technology (NCET), Life Science & Environment Research Institute (LSERI), King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), 6086 Prince Turky 1st St., Riyadh, 11442, Saudi Arabia

    Badr H. Alharbi, Mohammad J. Pasha, Abdulilah K. Alduwais & Mohammed Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi

  2. National Centre for Agricultural Technology (NCRT), Life Science & Environment Research Institute (LSERI), King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Majed D. Alotaibi

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  1. Badr H. Alharbi
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  2. Mohammad J. Pasha
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  3. Majed D. Alotaibi
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  4. Abdulilah K. Alduwais
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  5. Mohammed Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi
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Correspondence to Mohammed Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi.

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Alharbi, B.H., Pasha, M.J., Alotaibi, M.D. et al. Contamination and risk levels of metals associated with urban street dust in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 18475–18487 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08362-7

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