Risk assessments of heavy metals in house dust from a typical industrial area in Central China

Heavy-metal pollution in house dust is of great potential hazard to human health, as people spend more than half of their time at home. To investigate heavy-metal pollution in a heavily air-polluted area of the Xi'an western industrial area, house dust was collected from relatively large residential quarters and <63 mu m fraction of dust was measured for heavy metals. The results show that concentrations of Cr, Mn, Co, and V in the house dust are close to that in the local natural soil, whereas that of Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb are often significantly elevated-mainly caused by intensively industrial activities in this area. Total ecological risks of these eight metals are moderate to considerable in most (69%) dust samples, while they are considerable to high in the others, occurring at the southwest of the study area. Health risk assessments reveal that exposure of these eight metals in the house dust has no risks to adults but has significant non-cancer risks to children, predominantly caused by dust ingestion. The results of this study are helpful for environmental management in industrial areas.