title: Human lead (Pb) exposure via dust from different land use settings of Pakistan: A case study from two urban mountainous cities.
abstract: The current study aims to determine the dust-borne lead (Pb) levels into outdoor dust, which were collected from the areas nearby the cities/districts of Islamabad and Swat in Pakistan. In general dust samples from all land use settings (industrial, urban and rural) showed significantly higher (p<0.05) Pb-levels (median, ppm) from Islamabad (110, 52, 24) than those of Swat district (75, 37, 21), respectively. Index of Geo-accumulation (Igeo values) indicated that industrial and urban areas of both sites were highly polluted due to severe anthropogenic influence, whereas the rural areas were in most parts unpolluted and where moderately polluted, this was mainly due to geological factors and short and/or long distance atmospheric deposition from surrounding polluted areas. According to the calculated chemical daily intake (mg/kg-day) values, dust ingestion is one of the major routes of human exposure for lead. Hazard Index (HI) values, calculated for both adult and children populations, were above unity in industrial and urban areas, indicating serious health risks especially to the children populations.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, PR China; Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan; Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Electronic address: ali_ebl2@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah
authors.initials: SAMAS
authors.lastname: Eqani
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan; Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ramsha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Khalid
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan; Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Nazish
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bostan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan; Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Zafeer
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Saqib
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan; Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Jawad
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohmand
authors.affiliation: Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies (CEES), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rehan
authors.affiliation: Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies (CEES), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Nadeem
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Chemistry, Division of Chemical and Environmental Technology, Box 116, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece. Electronic address: katsogia@chem.auth.gr.
authors.forename: Ioannis A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Katsoyiannis
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, PR China.
authors.forename: Heqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002947:Cities; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D007854:Lead / Q000032:analysis*; D010154:Pakistan; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population
chemical_list: D004391:Dust; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007854:Lead
keywords: Dust; Hazard index; Lead (Pb); Pakistan; Risk estimation