Heavy metal contamination in street dusts with various land uses in Zahedan, Iran.

Abstract

A total of 78 street dust samples (75 within city and 3 from suburban) were collected from different areas with various land use within the city of Zahedan in November 2013 at the end of a long dry period. After digestion, the concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn were measured by using ICP-OES. The degree of pollution by heavy metals was assessed with respect to the background concentration by calculation and comparison of the pollution index, integrated pollution index (IPI) and enrichment factor (EF). The mean IPI values (aggregate of six heavy metals) in commercial, high traffic, industrial, urban park, and residential were 3.65, 2.76, 1.68, 1.53 and 1.25, respectively. The results of EF analysis showed almost all sampled urban land use types to be enriched in heavy metals compared with sampled background levels, suggesting heavy metals contamination of street dust in the urban center is from anthropogenic sources.