Seasonal Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Street Dust of Nicosia City in North Cyprus

Abstract

Heavy metals concentration is increasingly becoming health concern in the world, particularly on
street dust of urban cities with high density traffic. Road dust samples were analyzed for
determination of concentrations of the environmentally sensitive elements As, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb,
and Zn in fraction of dust smaller than 100 μm. The dust particles were collected during winter and
summer seasons from highways, residential and industrial areas representing different activities
across the Nicosia city. The dust samples were measured for their contamination levels and particles
size distribution. The assessment of pollution was based on single pollution indices, integrated
pollution indices and Pearson moment correlation in order to determine their possible source, spatial
distribution and seasonal variations. Single Indices include Contamination Factor (Cf), Index of
Geo-accumulation (Igeo) and the integrated indices include degree of contamination (Dc) and
Pollution Load Index (PLI). The general pattern of occurrence of heavy metals follows the order of
Cr>Zn>Cu>Ni>Pb>Co>As. The highest levels of Cr, Zn and Cu were found in the high traffic
density area, and strong positive correlations were found between these metals, implying that
automobile exhausts are the dominant source of these metals.

Keywords: Heavy metals, pollution indices, particles size distribution, seasonal variation.