Heavy Metal Pollution in Settled Dust Associated with Different Urban Functional Areas in a Heavily Air-Polluted City in North China

Dejun Wan, Zhangxiong Han, Jinsong Yang, Guanglin Yang and Xingqi Liu
Additional contact information
Dejun Wan: College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
Zhangxiong Han: Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Exploration and Utilization, Xi’an 710054, China
Jinsong Yang: Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050061, China
Guanglin Yang: Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050061, China
Xingqi Liu: College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: Understanding variations of heavy metals in atmospheric particles between different functional areas is significant for pollution control and urban planning in cities. To reveal pollution and spatial distribution of heavy metals in atmospheric particles from different urban functional areas in Shijiazhuang in North China, 43 settled dust samples were collected over the main urban area and heavy metal concentrations were determined in their <63 ?m fractions using an ICP-OES. The results suggest that Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and V in the dust are not or slightly enriched and their concentrations vary slightly between different sites, implying their natural origins; whereas Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb are often notably enriched and their concentrations vary significantly between different functional areas, indicating their anthropogenic sources. Integrated pollution indexes (IPIs) of the ten heavy metals are 2.7–13.6 (5.7 ± 2.2), suggesting high or very high pollution levels of most dust. Relatively lower IPIs occur mainly in the administration-education area, the commercial area, and other unclassified sites; while peaks occur mainly in the North Railway Station, the northeastern industrial area, and some sites near heavily trafficked areas, implying the significant influence of intensive industrial (including coal combustion) and traffic activities on atmospheric heavy metal accumulation. These results suggest a clear need of mitigating atmospheric heavy metal pollution via controlling emissions of toxic metals (especially Cd and Pb) from industrial and traffic sources in the city.

Keywords: heavy metal; atmospheric particle; enrichment factor; integrated pollution index; different functional area; spatial distribution; Shijiazhuang (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/11/1119/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/11/1119/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:11:p:1119-:d:82552

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().