Heavy metal contents of indoor airdust particulate matter from Adapazari, Turkey

Abstract

This paper presents heavy metal profiles of indoor dustfall depositions according to collection heights, collection time, heating type, and collection site. The samples were collected from residences located in six different places across Adapazan, the city close to Istanbul and Izmit metropolitans. In each house, two samples were collected at a height of 30 cm and 150 cm above the floor between March and September 2002. The arithmetic mean mass deposition rates for all houses were 0.98 mu g/cm(2)/day at 30 cm height and 0.57 mu g/cm(2)/day at 150 cm height. Mass depositions were observed to decrease in magnitude according to houses in the areas: Cark > Yesiltepe > Erenler > Kampus > Serdivan > Ozanlar. House dust of coal stove-heated houses tends to be higher in both lead, copper, cadmium (30 cm) and lead, copper, zinc, chromium (150 cm.) contents than that of coal-fired central-heated houses. These results suggested that ventilation of the houses and rainy weather affected re-suspended particles to enter, thus leading to the variability of settled dust levels. Therefore, exposure estimation measurements of contaminant levels in house dust should account for the weather conditions and height differences in dust mass.