Comprehensive study on the occurrence of heavy metals and their environmental risks in PM2.5 of indoor dusts in Xi’an, China

Abstract

Abstract Occurrence, distribution, ecological risk and health risk of Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, As and Cd in PM2.5 of indoor dusts from Xi’an were determined. All the target elements were detected in the samples, and the maximum Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, As and Cd contents in PM2.5 of dusts were 458, 1005, 115, 604, 2845, 1778, 122.6, and 21.1 mg/kg, respectively. Human activities, industrial produce and traffic could be the main reason for the detection of heavy metals in PM2.5. Cd were exhibited significantly high potential ecological risk, which suggested that more attention should be paid to the ecological and environmental effects of Cd pollution. Health risk analysis shows that ingestion of dust particles is the route of exposure for metals in dust, followed by dermal adsorption and inhalation. For children, hazard indexes (HIs) for metals As and Pb were lager than 1, indicating the adverse non-carcinogenic risk for children. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on investigating the fate and effects of heavy metals in PM2.5 in indoor dusts.