A comparative study of health risks of selected potentially toxic metals in household dust from different socio-economical houses of Dhanbad city, India

In this study, the determination of heavy metal concentrations (Fe, Mn, Ni, Cd, Cr, Cu, Co, Zn) in dust samples collected from different socioeconomic households in the urban area of Dhanbad city was investigated. Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) was utilized to detect the heavy metal content of the dust samples after digestion and filtration. The mean concentrations of Fe found 19,983.25 mg kg⁻¹ followed by Mn (313.03 mg kg⁻¹), Zn (296.05 mg kg⁻¹), Cu (62.16 mg kg⁻¹), Cr (37.87 mg kg⁻¹), Ni (33.67 mg kg⁻¹), Co (11.66 mg kg⁻¹), and Cd (5.65 mg kg⁻¹). Contamination Factor (CF) for elements Fe, Mn, Ni, and Co obtained values less than 1 signifying low contamination, CF values for element Cu ranged between 1 to 3 signifying moderate contamination whereas Zn comes under considerable contamination. CF values for elements Cd signify high contamination in all types of households. Cd was found to be highly enriched with a mean value of EF greater than 20 followed by Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Co, and Mn. The hazard index (HI) of selected heavy metals was less than 1 and the carcinogenic risk (CR) values for Cd, Cr, and Ni were found below safe levels (1E-06 to 1E-04) for both adults as well as children. The HI value for children was around five times that of adults, suggesting that children are at a greater risk of exposure to heavy metals in indoor dust from all socioeconomic type households.