Road Dust and House Dust: Nexus of Metal Concentrations

Abstract

People living in industrialized countries spend most of the time indoors. Therefore, a significant factor for the intake of pollutants by humans can be indoor contaminants like house dust (HD). The two main migration pathways of inorganic contaminants into buildings are the transport of soil and road dust (RD) adhering to footwear and atmospheric particulate matter sedimented inside the building. Additional sources of contaminants can come from activities carried out within the buildings. Some results are available from studies where samples of RD and HD were collected simultaneously. These results are compared with data from two studies where RD and HD samples were collected in the same area in Austria in Spring 2016. Since these samples were analysed by size fractions size dependent concentration ratios can be calculated for various elements. This information provides additional insight on the sources of specific elements.

Keywords

• road dust
• house dust
• metals
• austria