{"title":"Heavy metals in urban dust inside and outside homes during the Covid-19 pandemic in Mérida, Yucatán, México","authors":"Arcaeli Andrade, Anahí Aguilera, Ángeles Gallegos, Yameli Aguilar, Patricia Quintana, Francisco Bautista","doi":"10.1007/s11869-023-01410-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The COVID-19 pandemic caused a decrease in outdoor activities but an increase in indoor ones. Does this situation cause changes in pollution patterns? The objective of this study was to compare heavy metal contamination in indoor and outdoor dust in homes in the city of Mérida, Yucatán. Dust was collected in 51 homes on the weekends of May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was a lockdown. Three hundred ninety-six samples were obtained (203 indoors and 193 outdoors on the sidewalk). Heavy metal concentrations were measured in triplicate with a portable XRF Genius 7000 spectrometer from Skyray Instruments. The contamination factor was calculated using a local (decile 1) and a global background value. To identify whether there were differences in indoor and outdoor heavy metal concentrations, mixed linear models were used, and the statistical inference was made using hypothesis tests. The risk to human health was evaluated using the USEPA methodology. Using decile one as background, the contamination factor's median showed moderate contamination for Lead (Pb), Manganese (Mn), Iron (Fe), Calcium (Ca), Strontium (Sr), and Yttrium (Y) indoors and outdoors. Using world concentrations as background, higher Ca, Sr, and Y concentrations were found outdoors, while Copper (Cu), Pb, Titanium (Ti), and Zinc (Zn) concentrations were higher indoors. Pb represented a risk of developing health problems for children inside homes. These studies help design public policies to reduce urban emissions and pollution, implement dust and risk management programs, and conduct citizen cleaning campaigns.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49109,"journal":{"name":"Air Quality Atmosphere and Health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Air Quality Atmosphere and Health","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11869-023-01410-4","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a decrease in outdoor activities but an increase in indoor ones. Does this situation cause changes in pollution patterns? The objective of this study was to compare heavy metal contamination in indoor and outdoor dust in homes in the city of Mérida, Yucatán. Dust was collected in 51 homes on the weekends of May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was a lockdown. Three hundred ninety-six samples were obtained (203 indoors and 193 outdoors on the sidewalk). Heavy metal concentrations were measured in triplicate with a portable XRF Genius 7000 spectrometer from Skyray Instruments. The contamination factor was calculated using a local (decile 1) and a global background value. To identify whether there were differences in indoor and outdoor heavy metal concentrations, mixed linear models were used, and the statistical inference was made using hypothesis tests. The risk to human health was evaluated using the USEPA methodology. Using decile one as background, the contamination factor's median showed moderate contamination for Lead (Pb), Manganese (Mn), Iron (Fe), Calcium (Ca), Strontium (Sr), and Yttrium (Y) indoors and outdoors. Using world concentrations as background, higher Ca, Sr, and Y concentrations were found outdoors, while Copper (Cu), Pb, Titanium (Ti), and Zinc (Zn) concentrations were higher indoors. Pb represented a risk of developing health problems for children inside homes. These studies help design public policies to reduce urban emissions and pollution, implement dust and risk management programs, and conduct citizen cleaning campaigns.
期刊介绍：
Air Quality, Atmosphere, and Health is a multidisciplinary journal which, by its very name, illustrates the broad range of work it publishes and which focuses on atmospheric consequences of human activities and their implications for human and ecological health.
It offers research papers, critical literature reviews and commentaries, as well as special issues devoted to topical subjects or themes.
International in scope, the journal presents papers that inform and stimulate a global readership, as the topic addressed are global in their import. Consequently, we do not encourage submission of papers involving local data that relate to local problems. Unless they demonstrate wide applicability, these are better submitted to national or regional journals.
Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health addresses such topics as acid precipitation; airborne particulate matter; air quality monitoring and management; exposure assessment; risk assessment; indoor air quality; atmospheric chemistry; atmospheric modeling and prediction; air pollution climatology; climate change and air quality; air pollution measurement; atmospheric impact assessment; forest-fire emissions; atmospheric science; greenhouse gases; health and ecological effects; clean air technology; regional and global change and satellite measurements.
This journal benefits a diverse audience of researchers, public health officials and policy makers addressing problems that call for solutions based in evidence from atmospheric and exposure assessment scientists, epidemiologists, and risk assessors. Publication in the journal affords the opportunity to reach beyond defined disciplinary niches to this broader readership.
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