engleski

Toddlers' overall daily exposure to trace elements in indoor dust

The ubiquitous presence of trace elements in indoor and outdoor environments and their toxicity represent a threat to public health even at low levels of exposure and in particular to vulnerable population groups such as children. Indoor dust is an important part of daily exposure to toxic elements, especially given the amount of time spent indoors nowadays. In dust samples obtained from kindergartens (n=10) and cars (n=21) in the city of Zagreb, Croatia concentrations of 18 elements using ICP-MS were determined followed by an estimation of element exposure rates for toddlers (2-6 years of age) through ingestion, inhalation and dermal absorption of dust at central and worst case scenarios considering three different microenvironments where children spend most of their time – the home, kindergarten, and car. Calculations were made based on a time-weighted model that integrates the time fraction spent in each microenvironment (14 h, 7 h, and 1 h a day, respectively). In the central case scenario, daily intake of dust from homes contributes the most to the overall exposure to trace elements, with the largest proportion of 64 % calculated for Al, Se and Sr. In the worst-case scenarios, the highest contribution for Co, Cr, Cu, Mo and Sn was from intake of car dust (from 53 % for Cr to 95 % for Mo), because of the high concentrations measured in certain cars. Cars represent a microenvironment with potentially high levels of exposure to traffic-related pollutants. Oral intake was identified as the most important exposure pathway for trace elements from dust, except for Cr, Ni and Sb where dermal contact was the main route of exposure. A health risk assessment considering dust ingestion, inhalation and dermal absorption of analyzed dust indicated that no adverse health effects are expected from the overall exposure to trace elements. This work has been supported in part by the Croatian Science Foundation under project HrZZ- UIP-2017-05-6713.

trace elements ; indoor dust ; toddlers' exposure

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