Geochemical characterization and spatial distribution of heavy metals from urban dust in Chetumal, Mexico

• DOI: 10.22201/fi.25940732e.2019.20n3.027
• Publication Date: 2019-06-27T12:24:10Z
• Authors: José Gonzalo Zapa...; Francisco Bautist...; Jaime Rendón von ...; Luz del Carmen La...; David de Jesús Pa...; Rubén Cejudo Ruiz; Avto Goguichaichvili; Oscar Frausto Mar...
• Keywords: pollution load index; 13. Climate action; 11. Sustainability; Ingeniería; spectrophotometry; geostatistics; Contamination factor; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; indicator Kriging; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

The first diagnose of heavy metal (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Pb) concentrations present in Chetumal, Mexico and its spatial distribution was carried out by analyzing 86 samples of urban dust through atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The assessment of the extent of pollution was undertaken by the use of the Mexican Residential Soil Guideline Values, the calculation of the contamination factor and the pollution load index. The results showed concentrations of heavy metals below the Mexican guidelines in the city, except for chromium and lead in a few samples. However, using the contamination factor the concentrations for chromium, lead and copper are exceeded in some samples. The map of pollution load index shows the areas requiring immediate attention from the decision makers.