Metals concentrations in road dust from high traffic and low traffic area: a size dependent comparison

Abstract

Metals in road dust are increasingly investigated. The fine size fractions are of particular importance because of their higher mobility and the increased concentrations of pollutants. In this study, two average road dust samples from areas with highand low-traffic density were investigated. Prior to chemical analysis, a combined sieving and air classification procedure was applied where the road dust samples were split into seven size fractions. The metal concentrations in the road dust from the low-traffic area were only up to twice the background concentrations. An exception was Cu where the concentration was 15 time higher. In the sample from the high-traffic area, the respective concentrations of Zn, Mn, Fe, Pb, Ba, Sb and Cu were 5.4, 3.2, 3.0, 2.7, 2.7, 2.5 and 1.2 times higher compared to the low-traffic area. The ratio of the concentration in high-and low-traffic road dust was 0.8-2.0 for the fine size fractions and 2.0-6.0 for the coarse size fractions for several metals, including traffic-related metals like Fe and Ba. An explanation for this surprising result might be the atmospheric transport of re-suspended particles from high-traffic to low-traffic areas, which is feasible only for smaller particles because of their low sedimentation velocity. However, for the highly traffic-related metals Pb and Zn, the ratio was more size independent. For Cu, the concentration ratio was fluctuating. Some particles with a high Cu content in the analysed samples might be the reason.

Heavy metal analysis in of indoor and outdoor dust extracts and cytotoxicity evaluation and inflammation factors on lung, gastric and skin cell lines

“…Our results also showed that cell viability in the presence of particles collected from HT areas was significantly higher than in particles collected from LT areas. This result seems logical because similar to our findings, earlier studies reported a higher concentration of HMs in the HT area compared to LT one [ 44 , 45 ]. In terms of cytotoxicity, the effect of exposure to DPs on cell viability of cancer cells such as A549 and AGS was higher than that of normal cells.…”

National highway induced selected chemical properties of soils across tea bowl of India: scale and assessment

“…State Highway-49, NH 66 and NH 45A linking to Puducherry (India). Miazgowicz et al (2020) also documented that, in the soil samples from the high-traffic area collected from different parts of Krakow, Poland, the respective concentrations of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn were 1.2, 3.0, 3.2 and 5.4 times more than low-traffic area.…”

The Content and Sources of Potentially Toxic Elements in the Road Dust of Surgut (Russia)

“…Calculations of EF values showed that Sb, Zn, Mo, Cu and Pb were the main pollutants of Surgut's road dust (See Table 3). The main source of Sb in road dust is brake wear [79]. Antimony pentasulfide is used as a pigment in the production of car tires [80].…”