Heavy metal pollution of roadside dust samples with different traffic volumes at Hilla City

الملخص EN

To assess the pollution of heavy metal in roadside dust at Hilla city, this research characterize road dust properties in roadside soils of two sites : along road with dense traffic (60 street, high traffic volume) and secondary road with lower traffic, a local road (40 street, low traffic volume).

Road dust samples (40 in total) were collected under stable weather conditions during the hot, dry season (August and September) of 2011.

Road dust were collected from a total of 40 locations and analyzed for lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Nicle (Ni), Chromium (Cr (III)), Cobalt (Co) and Cadmium (cd) concentrations.

The results showed that all heavy metal contents except Cd and Cr, are higher than acceptable values in natural soils.

High contents of these elements could be attributed to anthropogenic effects related to traffic sources.

The results of this study were compared with several cities around the world.