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Human exposure to dust and heavy metals in industrial regions and its relationship with the prevalence of multiple sclerosis disease

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Abstract

In recent decades, multiple sclerosis (MS) diseases have been significantly prevalent in some industrial areas of Iran, such as steel industrial areas in Isfahan province (central Iran). In this study, the environmental impacts of two steel mill factories in Isfahan province and their effects on the spread of MS in the region were investigated. To examine the extent of exposure, seasonal dust samples were collected from 15 sites around the two investigated factories. The annual dust deposition rate (DDR) was then determined and the concentrations of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), and manganese (Mn) in the dust samples were measured. Furthermore, the concentration of the mentioned elements was determined in the nail samples taken from 40 MS patients and 40 healthy people (control) living in the study region. The interpolated map extracted from the DDR values showed the highest dust deposition around the two studied steel factories, which decreases with increasing distance from them. The enrichment factor (EF) of heavy metals was the highest at the distance between the two steel factories, decreasing by moving away from them which indicate that these two steel factories are the source of investigated heavy metals in the region. The statistical analysis also revealed significant differences (P < 0.01) between the concentration of heavy metals measured in nail samples taken from MS patients and healthy people. The mean Pb concentration measured in the nail sample taken from MS patients was more than 18 times that of healthy people (93.45 and 5.02 mg/kg, respectively). These results revealed a buildup of heavy metals in the body of MS patients much more than usual, originating from the activities of two investigated steel companies in the region.

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Data availability

The data used in this study are available from the author upon request (nhonarjoo@khuisf.ac.ir).

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the vice chancellor for research of the Islamic Azad University of Isfahan (Khorasgan) for providing the facilities for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Jei Street , Isfahan, 81551-39998, Iran

    Anahita Moradi & Naser Honarjoo

  2. inter 3 - Institute Fur Resource Management, Berlin, Germany

    Ali Asghar Besalatpour

  3. Department of Neurology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, 81744, Iran

    Masoud Etemadifar

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  1. Anahita Moradi
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  2. Naser Honarjoo
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  3. Ali Asghar Besalatpour
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  4. Masoud Etemadifar
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design of the research. The part related to the sampling of MS patients and related analyzes were carried out under the supervision of Dr. Besalat pour. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were done by Dr. Moradi. Map production, and writing the initial version of the manuscript were done by Dr. Honarjoo. All authors have read the manuscript, added comments and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Naser Honarjoo.

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Dr. Masoud Etemadifar, one of the authors of this article, was the supervisor of the MS Department of Al-Zahra Hospital in Isfahan. He compiled a questionnaire and gave it to 40 MS patients who were treated under his supervision, to collect information from them. This part of the research was conducted under the supervision of the head of the MS department of Al-Zahra Hospital, and following his research.

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Moradi, A., Honarjoo, N., Besalatpour, A.A. et al. Human exposure to dust and heavy metals in industrial regions and its relationship with the prevalence of multiple sclerosis disease. Environ Monit Assess 195, 471 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11017-y

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