Health risk assessment of heavy metals in atmospheric deposition in a congested city environment in a developing country: Kandy City, Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research study which was undertaken in a congested city environment in a developing country provides a robust approach for the assessment and management of human health risk associated with atmospheric heavy metals. The case study area was Kandy City, which is the second largest city in Sri Lanka and bears the characteristics of a typical city in the developing world such as the urban footprint, high population density and traffic congestion. Atmospheric deposition samples were collected on a weekly basis and analyzed for nine heavy metals common to urban environments, namely, Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb. Health risk was assessed using hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI), while the cancer risk was evaluated based on life time daily cancer risk. Al and Fe were found to be in relatively high concentrations due to the influence of both, natural and anthropogenic sources. High Zn loads were attributed to vehicular emissions and the wide use of Zn coated building materials. Contamination factor and geo-accumulation index showed that currently, Al and Fe are at uncontaminated levels and other metals are in the range of uncontaminated to contaminated levels, but with the potential to exacerbate in the long-term. The health risk assessment showed that the influence of the three exposure pathways were in the order of ingestion > dermal contact > inhalation. The HQ and HI values for children for the nine heavy metals were higher than that for adults, indicating that children may be subjected to potentially higher health risk than adults. The study methodology and outcomes provide fundamental knowledge to regulatory authorities to determine appropriate mitigation measures in relation to HM pollution in city environments in the developing world, where to-date only very limited research has been undertaken.

Impact of the Coal Mining on the Spatial Distribution of Potentially Toxic Metals in Farmland Tillage Soil

“…This result indicates that the high content of Zn mostly coincided with the discharge of domestic waste rather than coal mining activities. It was identified that high Zn loads were attributed to vehicular emissions and the wide use of Zn-coated building materials 47 . The Zn transportation characteristics were similar to those of Cd, with Zn transported by the combined actions of surface water and atmospheric deposition.…”

Spatial distribution of pollution characteristics and human health risk assessment of exposure to heavy elements in road dust from different functional areas of Zhengzhou, China

“…Subsequently, parts of the sieved dust samples were transported to new self-sealing polyethylene bags and then stored at 4°C before analysis. According to previous assessments of the potential health risk of heavy elements to the human body (Men et al 2018b), seven typical metals (Li et al 2017;Lin et al 2019;Weerasundara et al 2018) and arsenic, an oncogenic metalloid (Rahman et al 2019;Škrbić et al 2018), which has some of the chemical properties of a metal, were chosen for determination. These eight elements are cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and arsenic (As).…”

Analysis of Life Quality in a Tropical Mountain City Using a Multi-Criteria Geospatial Technique: A Case Study of Kandy City, Sri Lanka

“…However, some of the topographical obstacles (mountain ranges and slopes) and malfunctioning of socioeconomic attributes (infrastructure and services) have been caused by the scarcity of livable resident land. The mean daytime temperature ranges from 28-32 • C, while the average rainfall is approximately 2085 mm (long-term) [20] and 52-398 mm (monthly) [18]. Except for a short, dry period, Kandy City is like other green cities and has a tropical equatorial climate and a monsoon rainfall pattern.…”

“…Thus, conducting this type of research is a timely vital task to identify the level of life quality of residents. In the process, we first identified the importance of Kandy City as a commercial and living place by exploring past research [19,20] and development plans [59]. However, research related to the quality of life or livability of the city was still lacking, and this was the motivation factor for selecting this research title.…”