Heavy metals analysis in chalk sticks based on ICP-AES and their associated health risk

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Heavy metals analysis in chalk sticks based on ICP-AES and their associated health risk Yuexia Zhang 1 & Shanshan Ge 1 & Zhenhua Yang 1 & Chuan Dong 1 Received: 26 December 2019 / Accepted: 25 June 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the contents of 12 metals in obtainable chalk sticks and assess their associated health risk. Chalk stick samples from 16 factories were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICPAES). The results showed that 12 metals were detectable in white and colored chalks. The contents of Al, Fe, and Mg were in the range of 646.2–3909 μg/g, 408.8–2075.1 μg/g, and 125–6825.7 μg/g, respectively. Additionally, the levels of Cu, Pb, Mn, and Cr were ranked in the order of Cu>Cr>Pb>Mn, while the maximum levels of As, Ni, Cd, and Sn in all samples (9.90, 10.14, 7.27, and 6.08 μg/g, respectively) were relatively lower than those of other metals. Furthermore, the cumulative hazard index (HI) values of all metals and carcinogenic risk (CR) of As (1.12E-4), Ni (1.39E-4), and Cr (1.15E-4) for children were also higher than the threshold value (1.0E-6 to 1.0E-4), suggesting that chalk dust particles may exert adverse effects on children. Keywords Chalk stick . Metal . ICP-AES . Health risk

Introduction Chalk sticks are an ancient and economical teaching tools used worldwide, but they release fine chalk dust particles (Salma et al. 2013; Majumdar and William 2009; Zhang et al. 2015) during writing and scrapping processes. Thus, these particles have become a potential health-associated problem. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that exposure to chalk dust causes pneumonia and contact dermatitis in teachers (Ohtsuka et al. 1995; Corazza et al. 2012). Zhang et al. (2015) also found that fine chalk dust particles induced oxidative stress in rat alveolar macrophages.

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09884-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Zhenhua Yang [email protected] * Chuan Dong [email protected] 1

Institute of Environmental Science, Shanxi University, Wucheng Road 92#, Taiyuan 030006, Shanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

Indeed, the chemical composition of particle matter is a determinant for its toxicological effects. Previous studies have reported that some metals (As, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Zn) exist in classroom dust particles in Malaysia based on a physiologically based extraction test (Tan et al. 2018), while Maruthi et al. (2017) found some additional metals (Al, Mn, Fe, and Si) in chalk dust particles in India, which are noticed with higher concentration in both settled and suspended chalk dust, and the major contributors for the noncarcinogenic effects. Although some metal metabolism is essential for normal human subjects, excessive metal levels have adverse effects on human health (Li et al. 2014)