Assessment of the risk of exposure to Air pollutants and identifying the affecting factors on making pollution by PCA, CFA

ABSTRACT

Today, one of the most important problems for humans is disease and mortality due to air pollutants, especially in large and industrial cities. This research is to evaluate the health risk of children and adults’ exposure to heavy metals and PAHs in the air of cities of Arak, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Shiraz, Karaj and Mashhad and identifying the factors affecting pollution, based on sampling data from 120 stations, was done during 2019–2020. ICP OES and GC/MS were used to determine the amount of heavy metals and PAHs, respectively. US-EPA models were used for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk assessment and Factor analysis models, PCA, CFA with SPSS and LISREL software were used to identify factors affecting contamination. The risk index for children and adults, except in the cities of Arak and Isfahan, was obtained within the allowable range and the carcinogenicity and non-carcinogenicity risk of all metals, except Mn in Arak and Isfahan for children and adults was seen below the threshold. The carcinogenic risk of all PAHs was also obtained to an acceptable extent. During the statistical analysis, combustion of fuels, vehicle exhaust, tyre wear and industrial activities were identified as the most important factors in causing pollution.

KEYWORDS:

• Health risk assessment
• trace element
• pahs
• PCA
• CFA
• Iran

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support given by the Research Center for Environmental Health Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Grant Number: 1400-1-2–20121).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

IR.IUMS.REC.1400.006

Abbrevations

HQ: Hazard Quotient

ILCR: Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk

CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

PAH: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

PTFE: Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene

PCA: Principal component analysis

CFA: Confirmatory factor analysis

KMO: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin

RMSEA: Root Mean Square Error of Approximation

GFI: Goodness of Fit Index

CFI: Comparative Fit Index

IFI: Incremental Fit Index

RMR: Root Mean Square Residual

EFA: Exploratory factor analysis

CN: Critical N

GC/MS: Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2022.2059364