Assessment of Heavy Metals in Road Dust of Behbahan City, Iran: Distribution, Sources and Health Risks

Introduction: Road dust is a group of solid particles that are presented in the urban areas and are originated from both natural and human-induced sources. This study aims to determine concentrations of heavy metals in urban dusts in Behbahan to identify their natural or anthropogenic sources. Materials and Methods: In this study, a total of 20 samples were collected from main roads with different land uses, including residential, industrial, and commercial areas in Behbahan city, Khuzestan province. Results: The results of mineralogy identification showed that calcite, dolomite, quartz, albite, and gypsum were the most identified minerals in dust samples. In addition, heavy metals of As, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zn, Pb, Sb, U, Cd, Hg, and Mo were investigated in the collected settled road dust. The results indicated that the level of heavy metals, such as Co and Sb in the places with high traffic load were much higher than other areas. The highest Igeo value for Pb, Cu, and Sb were 1.39, 2.19, 2.46, respectively, suggesting that Pb, Cu, and Sb in the road dust were originated from the anthropogenic sources. Moreover, the results demonstrated that road dust may pose serious health threats to humans (both adults and children). Conclusion: In this study, the concentration of heavy metals in road dust of Behbahan was investigated. The concentration of heavy metals, such as Cu, Zn, Ni, As, Cr, Pb, U, and Fe in the road dust of the commercial section were much higher than other sections.