Elemental Contamination in Indoor Floor Dust and Its Correlation with PAHs, Fungi, and Gram+/? Bacteria

Sharif Arar, Afnan Al-Hunaiti, Mohanad H. Masad, Androniki Maragkidou, Darren Wraith and Tareq Hussein
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Sharif Arar: Department of Chemistry, School of Science, University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Afnan Al-Hunaiti: Department of Chemistry, School of Science, University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Mohanad H. Masad: Water, Environment and Arid Region Research Center (WEARRC), Al al-Bayt University, Al-Mafraq 25113, Jordan
Androniki Maragkidou: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling, P.O. Box 503, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland
Darren Wraith: School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland 4000, Australia
Tareq Hussein: Department of Physics, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: In this study, we performed elemental analysis for floor dust samples collected in Jordanian microenvironments (dwellings and educational building). We performed intercorrelation and cluster analysis between the elemental, polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), and microorganism concentrations. In general, the educational building workshops had the highest elemental contamination. The age of the dwelling and its occupancy played a role on the elemental contamination level: older and more occupied dwellingshad greater contamination. The elemental contamination at a dwelling entrance was observed to be higher than in the living room. We found exceptionally high concentrations for Fe and Mn in the educational workshop and additionally, Hg, Cr, and Pb concentrations exceeded the limits set by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. According to the cluster analysis, we found three major groups based on location and contamination. According to the enrichment factor ( EF ) assessment, Al, Co, Mn, Ti, and Ba had EF < 2 (i.e., minimal enrichment) whereas P, S, Pb, Sb, Mo, Zn, Hg, and Cu had EF > 40 (i.e., extremely enriched). In contrast, Ca and P were geogenically enriched. Furthermore, significant Spearman correlations indicated nine subgroups of elemental contamination combined with PAHs and microbes.

Keywords: ICP-OES; cluster analysis; Spearman correlation; dwellings; educational building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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