Preliminary Assessment of Heavy Metal in selected sites within Duhok city, Iraq

Environmental pollution is an emerging issues in the developed and developing countries. Rapid urbanization and industrialization is directly involved with the pollution of heavy metal in roadside dust. Heavy metals present in roadside dust are of interest due to their deleterious impacts on both human and ecosystem health. This study attempts to investigate the pollution by heavy metal in roadside dust at Duhok city, Iraq.  Five locations were selected based on the traffic density on the roads and different anthropogenic activity. To assess the pollution of heavy metal in roadside dust samples were collected under stable weather conditions during dry season, and  analyzed for Zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Nicle (Ni), Cobalt (Co) and Cadmium (Cd) concentrations. The range of Zn and Pb was concentration varied from 90.6 to 559.2 mg/kg and from 25.1 to 169.1 mg/kg in the roadside dust respectively, with a higher mean value observed in the industrial area. The results indicate that roadside dust is moderately contaminated with respect to Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd, and Co. High contents of these elements could be attributed to anthropogenic effects related to traffic sources. Also, the results of this study were compared with several cities around the world.