Arsenic levels from different land-use settings in Pakistan: Bio-accumulation and estimation of potential human health risk via dust exposure

• Investigation of As in dust, hair, and nails from Pakistan.
• Arsenic estimation by ICP-MS.
• Industrial areas showed highest As levels in all sample types.
• Industrial hair and nails were found above WHO threshold limit of 1 mg/kg.
• HI values showed higher As risk (both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic) via dust ingestion.

The present study aims at assessing arsenic (As) levels in outdoor dust and human exposure risks at different land use setting (i.e., rural, industrial, urban) from Punjab, Pakistan. The results showed higher As concentrations (mg/kg) in all the sample types ( i.e., dust, hair and nail) collected from industrial sites (9.78, 2.36, 2.5) followed by urban (7.59, 0.38, 0.88) and rural sites (6.95, 0.52, 1.12), respectively. In the current study, we also carried out human risk assessment via contaminated dust exposure, which suggested that dust ingestion is the major route of As contamination for the associated population, followed by the inhalation and dermal contact, at all studied land use settings. Hazard Index (HI) calculated for non-carcinogenic health risks for adults showed higher values at industrial (0.65) and urban (0.53) sites, which reflected that dust exposure is the major contributing source of human arsenic burden and may pose several adverse health effects. Carcinogenic risk values showed that at industrial areas the risk of carcinogenesis to the associated population is mainly due to As contaminated dust exposure. Hair (60%) and nail samples (70%) collected from industrial land use were found above the WHO threshold limit of 1 mg/kg, suggested high risks for human health in the studied area. The results of the present study would be useful for assessing the human health risks due to arsenic contamination via dust exposure in different parts of country.