The Use of a Sequential Extraction Procedure for Heavy Metal Analysis of House Dusts by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

In general, dust is considered as house or street dust. Indoor dust, as a contamination source, has been studied for many years. In this work, the original Community Bureau of Reference of the European Commission (BCR) three-stage sequential extraction procedure was applied to the fractionation of Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn in 20 house dust samples from five different areas of Sakarya, Turkey. Acetic acid, hydroxylammonium chloride, and hydrogen peroxide plus ammonium acetate were used for the first, second, and third steps of the BCR method, respectively. The extracts were analyzed for the studied heavy metals using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Validation of the results was performed by using a standard reference material (BCR 701 Sediment) to certify the experimental results obtained and to evaluate the reliability of the method used. The elemental loadings typically increased in magnitude according to the area order: Izmit Caddesi>Ankara Caddesi>Erenler>Karaman>Korucuk. The results were in agreement with values reported in the literature.