Special Issue "Chemical Distribution of Heavy Metals in Air and Health Risk Assessment"
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Risk Assessment and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2021.
Special Issue Editor
Interests: heavy metals chemistry; environmental analysis; speciation; chemical fractionation; ecological risk; human health risk
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Heavy metals are a group of the most important air pollutants. Air-borne particles enriched with heavy metals originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources (mainly industrial plants, power industry, heating in the residential sector, and road transport). There is an unwavering interest in atmospheric pollution with heavy metals due to their high toxicity, environmental stability, non-degradability, and susceptibility to bioaccumulation. Research in this field is concerned with the level of pollution, spreading and fate of heavy metals in the atmosphere, occurrence of heavy metals in particulate matter with different grain sizes (physical fractionation), geochemical forms (chemical fractionation), and the increasing importance of human health risk assessment. The approach to the assessment of the health risk is quite varied. In several studies, a total or pseudo-total content of heavy metals was used for this purpose. The doses of heavy metals received were also determined based on the results of bioaccessibility extraction tests and chemical fractionation results.
In this Special Issue, the intention is to present current research on heavy metal speciation in the atmosphere, generally speaking, an occurrence of these metal species or their geochemical forms. Methodological studies developing a new approach to the application of metal speciation to health risk assessment are most welcome. Authors are kindly invited to submit original research papers, reviews, and short communications.
Prof. Dr. Ryszard Świetlik
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- heavy metals
- speciation
- chemical fractionation
- health risk assessment
- atmosphere
- air
- particulate air pollution
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: The use of chemical fractionation in the study of particulate heavy metals in the air: a critical review
Authors: Ryszard Świetlik; Marzena Trojanowska
Affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry and Engineering, Kazimierz Pulaski University of Technology and Humanities in Radom, Radom, Poland
Abstract: In recent years, studies of heavy metal air pollution increasingly have gone beyond determining total concentrations of individual toxic metals. Physical and/or chemical fractionation of heavy metals in airborne particles (so-called solid-speciation or atmospheric speciation) is becoming an important element of those studies. This review covers the articles that have been published over the last two decades. Attention was paid to the issue of atmospheric aerosol sampling, sample pretreatment, sequential extraction schemes and extraction conditions. The geochemical forms of metals occurring in the air in industrial, urban and agricultural areas, as well as in the areas beyond a direct range of heavy metal emissions was discussed in detail. The possibilities of using the results of the fractionation of heavy metals for health risk assessment were also described.