Kadir Ulutaş

Dust from intensive mining operations like quarrying is a major concern in urban areas and should be assessed from environmental and public health perspectives. This study investigates the geochemical properties of trace elements in street dust and their associated health risks, based on samples collected from 40 georeferenced sites across three densely populated districts of Istanbul (Sultangazi, Eyüp, and Gaziosmanpaşa) located near and affected by quarries. The concentration distribution of 21 elements (Si > Al > Fe > Mg > Na > Ti > Mn > Zn > Ba > Cu > Cr > V > Pb > Ni > Sb > Co > As > Cd > Hg > Mo > Sn) was determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), indicating that elements associated with natural sources are more dominant. The concentrations of potentially toxic elements exhibited wide spatial variability, with Co ranging from 6.14 to 4467.49 mg kg ⁻¹ , Cr from 36.78 to 2933.88 mg kg ⁻¹ , Zn from 47.75 to 3828.63 mg kg ⁻¹ , Pb from 6.89 to 1166.41 mg kg ⁻¹ , and As from 0.25 to 1032.63 mg kg ⁻¹ . Pollution levels were assessed, revealing extremely high contamination levels for Co based on the enrichment factor (EF = 107.99) and for Sn based on the geo-accumulation index (Igeo = 8.73). Human health risk assessment identifies ingestion as the dominant exposure pathway, with non-carcinogenic risk exceeding acceptable thresholds for children, particularly for Co, Cr, and As which their total hazard index was 2.65E+01. Carcinogenic risk via inhalation remains within acceptable limits. The findings emphasize the dominant role of particulate matter from quarries in contributing to urban street dust pollution. Moreover, the high levels of elements classified as potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in road dust, combined with quarrying activities, can lead to the accumulation of heavy metals in environmental components, disrupting ecosystem balance and posing significant environmental and human health risks to communities living in these areas.

The increasing popularity of roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco has raised toxicological concerns regarding heavy metal exposure. This study quantified fourteen metals (Fe, Zn, Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Cd, Mo, Co, Sb, Pb, As, Hg, and V) in RYO tobacco samples collected from ten provinces in Türkiye using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Fe exhibited the highest mean concentration (18.11 mg.kg ⁻¹ ), followed by Zn (10.53 mg.kg ⁻¹ ) and Mn (5.020 mg.kg ⁻¹ ), whereas As (0.041 mg.kg ⁻¹ ), Hg (0.015 mg.kg ⁻¹ ) and V (0.001 mg.kg ⁻¹ ) occurred at the lowest concentrations. Statistically significant correlations were observed, including Fe-Hg (r = 0.97, p < 0.001) and Zn-As (r = -0.77, p < 0.01), indicating shared geochemical influences and contrasting uptake patterns. Health risk assessment following USEPA guidelines indicated that all Hazard Quotients (HQ < 1) and Hazard Index (HI = 4.8 × 10 ^–3 ) remained below the non-carcinogenic threshold, and Carcinogenic Risk values ranged from 2.50 × 10 ^–7 to 2.00 × 10 ^–10 and remained below 10 ^–6 . The results characterize metal exposure levels in RYO tobacco and indicate potential toxic elements as elements requiring continued monitoring due to their toxicological relevance.

The levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) Mn, Zn, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Pb, As, Sb and Cd in street dust from Baghdad city were determined. The sources of PTEs in street dust were analyzed using multivariate statistical analysis that combined with the spatial distributions of PTEs. The mean concentration of the PTEs in the present study follows a trend of Mn > Zn > Cr > Co > Ni > Cu > Pb > As > Sb > Cd. The overall contamination of PTEs in street dust was characterized as moderate to strongly contaminated due to As, Cd and Pb. The ecological risk associated with As was very high, while the ecological risks associated with and Ni, Sb, Co, Zn, Cr, and Mn were low. The overall ecological risk of PTEs was defined as moderate, driven by As. The carcinogenic risks of PTEs to inhabitants fell within safety limits while there is a non-carcinogenic risk for children. A comprehensive analysis of PTEs sources revealed that Zn, Cu, and Pb were principally associated with traffic emissions, which accounted for about 17.8% of these PTEs' contents. Mn, Ni, Cr, Co, Cd, and Sb were mainly related with industrial source, which contributed to about 54.7% of these PTEs' concentrations. Arsenic is primarily derived from coal combustion, which was not resolved from PCA in this study. However, the spatials distribution map and statistical analysis imply that coal combustion is another source influencing the levels of PTEs in the study area. This study demonstrates that industrial and traffic emissions are the main anthropogenic sources of PTEs contamination in the street dust in the Baghdad city.

Different health management strategies may need to be implemented in different regions to cope with diseases. The current work aims to evaluate the relationship between air quality parameters and the number of new COVID-19 cases in two different geographical locations, namely Western Anatolia and Western Black Sea in Turkey. Principal component analysis (PCA) and regression model were utilized to describe the effect of environmental parameters (air quality and meteorological parameters) on the number of new COVID-19 cases. A big difference in the mean values for all air quality parameters has appeared between the two areas. Two regression models were developed and showed a significant relationship between the number of new cases and the selected environmental parameters. The results showed that wind speed, SO₂, CO, NO_X, and O₃ are not influential variable and does not affect the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the Western Black Sea area, while only wind speed, SO₂, CO, NO_X, and O₃ are influential parameters on the number of new cases in Western Anatolia. Although the environmental parameters behave differently in each region, these results revealed that the relationship between the air quality parameters and the number of new cases is significant.