Heavy Metal Pollution in Street Dust: A Comprehensive Study on Risk Assessment and Source Identification in a Highly Industrialized Area of Bangladesh

Abstract The study is intended to report the level of heavy metals (HMs) contamination, their potential source, and their impacts by analyzing street dust (SD) samples collected from thirty distinct sampling locations in Narayanganj Sadar Upazila, Bangladesh. The results suggest that the average concentrations of Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb), Manganese (Mn), Sodium (Na), Calcium (Ca), and Magnesium (Mg) were 317.25 ± 62.25, 247.86 ± 25.76, 53.26 ± 16.76, 3.53 ± 2.03, 56.35 ± 31.76, 443.94 ± 6.48, 227.18 ± 33.86, 101.74 ± 3.79, 4842 ± 203.90, and 79.46 ± 1.70 mg kg− 1, respectively. Both Cr and Cu levels were over five and ten times higher than the background values, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) suggest that industrial activities and heavy traffic on the street could be the potential sources. Moreover, Cr, Cu, and Cd all exhibit 'very high’ contamination factors (CF), with corresponding enrichment factors (EF) categorized as 'significant', 'very high’, and 'high', respectively. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) found a moderately to strongly polluted category for Cu and a strong to extremely polluted category for Cd. Risk indices indicate that potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks were notably higher for children compared to adults, with the primary mode of exposure being ingestion.