Using Magnetic Susceptibility Technique to Predict Heavy Metal Pollution in Atmospheric Dust from Isfahan and Neighboring Cities

Dust is a significant environmental medium that can provide information about the level, distribution and fate of contaminants present in the surface environment. Dust could be an indicator of pollutants such as heavy metal in the atmosphere. Furthermore, the elemental composition and concentrations in dust reflects the characteristics of short and long term activities in the area. Atmospheric dust is investigated as an important source of heavy metals in urban and industrial areas. Heavy metals can accumulate in dust and disperse in large scale. Thus, in these areas dust contains considerable amount of heavy metals. Both dust and heavy metals may cause human health issues and adverse environmental effects. Various and conventional methods have been used to determine heavy metal contamination in soil, dust, water, and sediment. Almost all of these methods are based on chemical analysis and particularly acid digestion. In recent years, researchers have used magnetic susceptibility (MS) technique as an acceptable approach to identify pollution sources. Magnetic measurements are fast, cost-effective, non-destructive, sensitive and informative. Strong correlation between heavy metal concentration and magnetic susceptibility in dust can be used for fast assessment of heavy metals contamination and their spatial distribution. Studies have shown that magnetic susceptibility is a useful tool to identify industrial pollutants, traffic pollutants and other atmospheric pollutants.