Heavy Metals Size Distribution in PM10 and Environmental-Sanitary Risk Analysis in Acerra (Italy)

The present research has been focused on the evaluation of seasonal changes in mass concentrations and compositions of heavy metals in Particular Matters (PM)10 collected from a typical urban-industrial site in Acerra, a city located in an area called “triangle of death”. No significant (p < 0.05) seasonal variation was evidenced for the PM10 concentration, but in all the seasons (except for autumn) exceedances of daily concentrations (50 μg m−3) were observed. Airborne PM was analyzed for these heavy metals: Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, V and Zn, which represented about 8% of the PM10 concentrations. None of the metals classified by IARC as carcinogenic in humans (group 1) exceeded on average the annual EU’s and Italy’s limit. For the mentioned heavy metals the enrichment factors (EnFs) were analyzed and highlighted high enrichment for Cd, Sb, Pb, As, Cu and Zn. Principal component analysis (PCA) for the heavy metals in PM10 identified oil combustion, vehicle and industrial emissions as major sources. To assess the health risk related to the inhalation to airborne PM10 metals, we applied the Cancer Risk (CR) and Target Hazard Quotient (THQ). The results showed that the CR was similar for a child and an adult, while the THQ proved to be higher for a child than for an adult. The low PM metals risk in the urban industrial site was in agreement with the ongoing lowering trend of metals in Italy and Europe