Mercury in the Urban Topsoil of Athens, Greece

Kelepertzis, Efstratios; Argyraki, Ariadne

doi:10.3390/su7044049

Cited by 18 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Besides, relative high mercury concentrations were measured in samples to the Northwest of the ancient town, which correspond to the city center with high-density traffic and high intensity human activity. Similarly, a high level of soil mercury relative to the human activities has also been found in other cities [55,59]. The Southwest suburbs also show high mercury concentration, while the middle part of Shanghai showed a low level of mercury.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 56%

Occurrence, Distribution and Risk Assessment of Mercury in Multimedia of Soil-Dust-Plants in Shanghai, China

Liu

Song

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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The urban environment is a complex ecosystem influenced by strong human disturbances in multi-environmental media, so it is necessary to analyze urban environmental pollutants through the comprehensive analysis of different media. Soil, road dust, foliar dust, and camphor leaves from 32 sample sites in Shanghai were collected for the analysis of mercury contamination in soil–road dust–leaves–foliar dust systems. Mercury concentrations in surface soils in Shanghai were the highest, followed by road dust, foliar dust, and leaves, successively. The spatial distribution of mercury in the four environmental media presented different distribution patterns. Except for the significant correlation between mercury concentrations in road dust and mercury concentrations in leaves (r = 0.56, p < 0.001), there was no significant correlation between the other groups in the four media. Besides this, there was no significant correlation between mercury concentrations and land types. The LUR (Land use regression) model was used to assess the impact of urbanization factors on mercury distribution in the environment. The results showed that soil mercury was affected by factories and residential areas. Foliar dust mercury was affected by road density and power plants. Leaf mercury was affected by power plants and road dust mercury was affected by public service areas. The highest average HI (Hazard index) value of mercury in Shanghai was found in road dust, followed by surface soil and foliar dust. The HI values for children were much higher than those for adults. However, the HI values of mercury exposure in all sampling sites were less than one, suggesting a lower health risk level. The microscopic mechanism of mercury in different environmental media was suggested to be studied further in order to learn the quantitative effects of urbanization factors on mercury concentrations.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 56%

Occurrence, Distribution and Risk Assessment of Mercury in Multimedia of Soil-Dust-Plants in Shanghai, China

Liu

Song

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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“…The emission levels of Hg have reached up to 24 times higher today than those before the industrial period [25,26]. Mining and nonferrous metal production, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, coal combustion, municipal solid waste incineration, and cement production plants contribute significantly to atmospheric Hg input [27][28][29][30][31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of Mercury Exposure via Indoor and Outdoor Household Dust in Three Iranian Cities

et al. 2022

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This study aims to increase our current knowledge on the concentration of particulate-bound mercury (PBM) in urban environments of three Iranian cities, where high concentrations of dust particles can act as carriers for mercury transport and deposition. A total of 172 dust samples were collected from Ahvaz, Asaluyeh, and Zabol residential houses and in outdoor air and were analyzed for total mercury content. Ahvaz is a highly industrialized city with large metallurgical plants, refineries, and major oil-related activities, which were assumed to contribute to elevated contents of PBM in this city. Very high levels of Hg contamination in Ahvaz indoor dust samples were calculated (Contamination Factor: CF > 6). Sampling sites in Asaluyeh are influenced by Hg emissions from the South Pars Gas Field. However, the results revealed a relatively lower concentration of PBM in Asaluyeh, with a low-to-moderate level of Hg contamination. This is likely ascribed to the lower content of total mercury in hydrocarbon gases than crude oil, in addition to the absence of metal smelting plants in this city compared to Ahvaz. Zabol, as a city devoid of industrial activity, presented the lowest levels of PBM concentration and contamination. Indoor dust in Ahvaz showed considerable potential to cause a non-carcinogenic health risk for children, mainly through the inhalation of PBM, while the health risk for other cities was below safe limits. The trend of health risk was found in the order of indoor > outdoor and children > adults in all studied cities.

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“…Therefore, SVF may be an integrated indicator to describe the crown characteristics. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) is suitable for clustering targets with an unknown number of groups [29], and has been applied to identify pollution sources and assess rice production risks on the basis of the similarity of observations [30][31][32]. In addition, previous studies on the planting design of green spaces have investigated the visual effects, but not the functions, of plants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Screening of Tree Species for Improving Outdoor Human Thermal Comfort in a Taiwanese City

Lin

Tsai

2017

Sustainability

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Tropical cities can use urban greening designs featuring trees that provide shade and cooling in hot outdoor environments. The cooling effect involves numerous tree characteristics that are not easy to control during planting design, such as the canopy size and the optical properties of leaves. Planting the appropriate tree species dominates the cooling effects and the human thermal environment. Based on environmental and plant data, including the tree species, crown diameter of trees, physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), and sky view factor (SVF) in an outdoor space, a series of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) procedures was implemented to identify the tree species that are appropriate for improving thermal comfort. The results indicated strong correlations between SVF, average crown diameter, and PET. SVF decreased as the average crown diameter increased. For the average crown diameter of trees in an area wider than 1.5 m, the cooling effect was especially dominated by the tree species. Therefore, 15 species were screened by HCA procedures, based on a similar cooling effect. These species had various cooling effects, and were divided into four categories. Tree species, such as Spathodea campanulata and Cinnamomum camphora, had the appropriate crown diameter and cooling effect for the most comfortable thermal environment.

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Mercury in the Urban Topsoil of Athens, Greece

Cited by 18 publications

References 44 publications

Occurrence, Distribution and Risk Assessment of Mercury in Multimedia of Soil-Dust-Plants in Shanghai, China

Occurrence, Distribution and Risk Assessment of Mercury in Multimedia of Soil-Dust-Plants in Shanghai, China

Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of Mercury Exposure via Indoor and Outdoor Household Dust in Three Iranian Cities

Screening of Tree Species for Improving Outdoor Human Thermal Comfort in a Taiwanese City

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