Road dust as a useful tool for the assessment of pollution characteristics and health risks due to heavy metals: a case study from District Charsadda, Pakistan

In this study, the pollution features of selected heavy metals (Mn, Co, Cr, Ni, Cd, Pb, Zn, and Cu) in road dust, as well as their associated health risk, were analyzed for children, and male and female adults in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Ni, Cd, Pb, Zn, and Cu concentrations were discovered to be substantially higher than the allowed limits. According to pollution indices, road dust at these three locations was moderately contaminated with Co and Cu but heavily contaminated with Cd, Pb, and Zn. The computed RI values for the three sites were significantly higher than the threshold limits, indicating a high level of ecological danger. The hazard quotients (HQs) values for all metals for all exposure routes were less than 1, indicating that there is no danger of health effects from road dust exposure for the three groups of persons. In the case of Pb, however, the HQ values for ingestion route for the three groups of participants were all close to 1, indicating a low danger. Co, Cr, Ni, and Cd have cancer risk (CR) values of less than 1.0E-06, indicating that they pose no significant cancer risk.