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Heavy metals in urban dusts from Alexandria and Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt: implications for human health

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Abstract

A total of 23 road-dust and 9 house-dust samples were collected from Alexandria and Kafr El-Sheikh cities, Egypt in 2016 to investigate heavy metal (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) contamination, spatial distribution, sources, and health risks. The mean concentrations (mg kg−1) of Cd (road-dust (RD) = 0.33, house-dust (HD) = 0.77), Cu (RD = 80, HD = 141), Pb (RD = 70, HD = 260), and Zn (RD = 169, HD = 771) in Alexandria and Zn (RD = 192, HD = 257) in Kafr El-Sheikh were higher than corresponding background (background refers to generic earth crust shale values given in the literature) levels. Whereas average concentrations (mg kg−1) of Co, Cr, Mn, and Ni (Alexandria: RD = 2.7, 24.3, 251, 14.4; HD = 3.2, 29.2, 237, 25.1 and Kafr El-Sheikh: RD = 6.6, 31.9, 343, 20.2; HD = 8.6, 33.4, 438, 23.2) in both cities were much lower than their background values. Spatially, for most heavy metals, the high concentrations were observed in areas characterized with increased anthropogenic activities, heavy traffic, and high population density. Contamination indices revealed moderate contamination (Cd and Cu) to high contamination (Pb: only house-dust from Alexandria), which posed low (most metals) to moderate ecological risk (Cd and Pb). Correlation analysis and factor analysis classified the studied metals in two groups as: natural input (Co, Cr, Mn, Ni, and Fe) and anthropogenic sources (Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn). The noncancerous risks posed by studied metals ranged from 0.0001 (Cd) to 0.15 (Pb) and were insignificant. The cancerous risk of Pb (1.4 × 10−4) for children on exposure to house-dust form Alexandria exceeded the guideline values and was considered unacceptable, whereas the cancerous risks of other studied metals were acceptable for both subpopulations. The results of health risk revealed that children are facing higher risk than adults.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to Mr. Mohamed Ali Abdel-Dayem for road- and house-dust sample collection. The anonymous reviewers should be appreciated for their constructive comments that improved this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21130, Pakistan

    Waqar Azeem Jadoon, Sherif Mohamed Mohamed Ali Abdel-Dayem & Ghulam Mujtaba Shah

  2. Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8521, Japan

    Waqar Azeem Jadoon, Kazuhiko Takeda & Hiroshi Sakugawa

  3. Department of Pesticides Chemistry and Toxicology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt

    Sherif Mohamed Mohamed Ali Abdel-Dayem

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University Islamabad, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Zafeer Saqib

  5. Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21130, Pakistan

    Manzoor Hussain & Ghulam Mujtaba Shah

  6. Department of Chemistry, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21130, Pakistan

    Wajid Rehman

  7. Department of Meteorology, COMSATS University, Tarlai Kalan Park Road, Islamabad, 45550, Pakistan

    Jabir Hussain Syed

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  1. Waqar Azeem Jadoon
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  2. Sherif Mohamed Mohamed Ali Abdel-Dayem
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  3. Zafeer Saqib
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  8. Wajid Rehman
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Correspondence to Jabir Hussain Syed.

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Jadoon, W.A., Abdel-Dayem, S.M.M.A., Saqib, Z. et al. Heavy metals in urban dusts from Alexandria and Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt: implications for human health. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 2007–2018 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08786-1

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