Health risk assessment of toxic elements in sedimentable dust from landfills

Four monitoring campaigns of sedimentable dust were provided from two large non-sanitary landfills (Zrenjanin and Novi Sad) in Serbia during 2021. Particle size analysis by laser diffraction and inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) were carried out in order to obtain particle size distribution (PSD) and toxic elements (TEs) concentrations. The health risk assessment of the landfill employees was performed according to United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) methods based on TEs concentrations. The particle size distribution results demonstrated that the majority of sedimentable dust samples mass were not concentrated neither within PM2.5 neither within PM10 fraction. Analysis revealed high concentration of TEs at both landfills: an extremely high concentration of Cr and Zn in samples from Zrenjanin landfill was detected. Health risk potential of elements was as follows for both landfills: Cr > Co > Pb > Ni > Zn > Cu. According to the results, maximal hazard index (HI) for landfill employees in Zrenjanin (1.97*10-1) and Novi Sad (1.13*10-1) showed that non-cancer risk was very low. For both landfill sites, cancer risk (CR) was highest for Cr (2.75*10-5 for Zrenjanin and 2.02*10-7 for Novi Sad), though still within the defined threshold for tolerable cancer risk.