Elsevier

Chemosphere

Volume 63, Issue 9, June 2006, Pages 1546-1552
Chemosphere

Cadmium exposure from the cement dust emissions: A field study in a rural residence

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2005.09.059Get rights and content

Abstract

The cement dust is one of the causes of pollution in the environment. In the present study, the cadmium concentrations of soil and plant specimens taken from a rural area exposed to cement factory emissions were determined and also the blood concentrations and sensitivity conditions in humans residing in this rural area were investigated. The 108 soil (36 for control) and plant specimens were collected from eight different directions of the cement plant located in Çukurhisar town in Eskişehir city. Blood samples of the individuals residing in this area were taken from 258 subjects (258 for control) following a physical examination, and patch tests were also applied. The results show that the cadmium concentrations of the soil and plant specimens taken from different places in different directions of the factory were higher than in the control areas. The physical examination of subjects did not reveal results different from those of the control group except for the diagnosis of contact dermatitis. The analysis of venous blood samples showed that cadmium concentrations were found to be within the reference values given for both groups, but higher in the subjects (p < 0.001). According to the results of patch tests, sensitivity to cadmium was found to be more frequent for the subject group than the control group (p < 0.05).

Those results show that, although clinical tools revealed no toxic effects for the subject, except contact dermatitis, the cement plant increases cadmium pollution on the surrounding environment.

Introduction

Contamination of the environment by many pollutants is one of the most significant problems in this century. As a result of industrial activities lots of chemical substances such as heavy metals have generated pollution in the environment. Although some metals (e.g. manganese, zinc, iron cobalt and nickel) are essential for metabolism in trace amounts, whereas other non-essentials have no biological role (e.g. silver, aluminium, cadmium, lead, mercury) and potentially toxic for living systems and they can be carried through soil–plant–animal–human cycles (Akar and Tunali, 2005, Demir et al., 2005b, Demir et al., 2005a, Hussein et al., 2005). Among these metals due to acute toxicity cadmium has been considered as an extremely significant pollutant with lead and mercury (Akar et al., 2005, Kiran et al., 2005) Of concern is the increasing concentration of cadmium deposited in agricultural soils by airborne cadmium particles. Cadmium is a relatively mobile metal in soils, and many crops retain relatively high cadmium levels (Grandjean, 1992).

In general, about one half of the human body’s burden of cadmium is located in liver and kidneys. The liver is the main storage organ for cadmium in the body, but the highest concentration eventually is reached in the kidneys. The biological half-life is at least 10 years, probably closer to 20 years, and cadmium therefore seems to accumulate in the body during the major part of a lifetime (Lauwerys, 1982, Grandjean, 1992).

Cadmium is released to air, land and water by human activities. Cadmium is one of the trace elements in fossil fuels and spread along environment as a result of the use of such fuels. Industries that employ thermal processes, e.g., iron production, fossil fuel combustion, and cement manufacture, all release airborne cadmium. Increases in soil cadmium content result in an increase in the uptake of cadmium by plants; the pathway of human exposure from agricultural crops is thus susceptible to increases in soil cadmium (WHO, 1992).

Solid particles, can negatively effect the environmental quality. One of the factories which can cause particle pollution, is a cement factory. Although they are generally established far from city centers, local areas are affected negatively. Cement dusts spread along a large area through wind, rain, etc. are accumulated on plants, animals and soil and can affect human health badly (Bayhan and Özbay, 1992, Demir et al., 2005a). Cement is manufactured in three basic steps: extraction and preparation of raw materials, calcining and finally grinding of the clinker. Atmospheric emissions include some pollutant materials such as particles and metals (Schuhmacher et al., 2004). The data on the environmental levels and health risks for humans living near cement factories are scarce (Işıklı et al., 2003, Yang et al., 2003, Schuhmacher et al., 2004, Demir et al., 2005b).

The objective of the study was to determine the cadmium concentrations of soil and plant specimens taken from a rural area exposed to cement factory emissions and also to determine the blood concentrations and sensitivity conditions observed on human residing in this rural area.

Section snippets

Study area

The study was carried out between May 2000 and March 2001 in Eskişehir, Turkey. Çukurhisar, the town where the study was conducted, is located in an area that is 500 m from the Eskişehir Cement Factory. The cement factory had been operating in the area since 1954. The records of medical center indicate that there are 1798 male (49.9%) and 1806 female (50.1%) subjects, forming a total population of 3604, in this town.

Sampling and sample preparation

The type of soil in the area is rough, with good drainage, and was structured

Results and discussion

Although the average cadmium concentration of the earth’s crust was reported as 0.55 μg g−1 by Grandjean (1992), and 100 μg g−1 by WHO (1992), it was reported that this value could rise up to 40 mg kg−1 in contaminated soils. In the uncontaminated soils cadmium occurs below 1.0 mg kg−1 (Soon and Abboud, 1993, Akmal et al., 2005) in the general range of 0.1–0.4 mg kg−1 (Page, 1981).

The mean cadmium concentration of the soil samples taken from the different points in the residence place (n = 12) (0.28 ± 0.01 mg 

Conclusions

Different environments, different nutrition habits, may cause different sensitivity in humans. Control groups with characteristics similar to those of study groups should be used for comparison, particularly for studying industrial effects of cadmium.

The mean cadmium concentrations of soil and plant specimens decreased significantly as the distance from the factory increased. We concluded that there was an environmental pollution in means of cadmium and although a clinical finding to explain

Acknowledgement

This article is a part of project (project number 2000/13) supported by the Research Fund of Osmangazi University and contains the cadmium results of the study.

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