Iranian Journal of

Background and Objective: Heavy metal (HM) pollution of settled dust on the interior surfaces of elementary schools may affect the health of young students; hence, the health risk of such pollution should be assessed. Therefore, the aims of this study were to measure the content of heavy metals in the settled dust in the indoor of elementary schools in Bandar Abbas and to assess the attributed health risks.
Materials and Methods: In this study, dust samples were collected from the interior surfaces of elementary schools in Bandar Abbas. Settled dust samples were digested using aqua regia solution and then their metals contents were measured using ICP-OES. To assess the health risk attributed to this pollution, daily intake doses through ingestion, inhalation and skin absorption routes were estimated. Then, non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were calculated considering the daily intake doses and toxicity factors.
Results: The average concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, nickel and lead in settled dust were 5.45, 0.58, 11.44, 69.72, 83.95 and 66.72 mg/kg, respectively. The non-carcinogenic risk level for all metals was below threshold, while the carcinogenic risk level for arsenic (2.18×10^-6) exceeded the threshold.
Conclusion: This study showed that the settled dust in elementary schools of Bandar Abbas is polluted with various levels of heavy metals. Health risk assessment showed that the exposure to dust containing heavy metals in the elementary schools of Bandar Abbas does not pose significant non-carcinogenic risk, but the carcinogenic risk of As exceeded the threshold limit and should be considered.

Background and Objective: Given the concern about the presence of microplastics in the air and settled dust, and the lack of a standard approach for their detection, it is necessary to investigate the methods and techniques used to study this type of pollution in Iran. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review the methods and techniques used for sampling, quantification, and characterization of microplastics in the air and settled dust in indoor and outdoor environments in Iran.
Materials and Methods: In this systematic review, the keywords Microplastic*, Air*, Atmosphere*, Dust, Indoor, Outdoor, Iran, and their corresponding Persian equivalents were searched until Dec 1, 2023, in Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Magiran, and SID databases. Obtained articles from the databases were analyzed in order to find the eligible ones.
Results: Overall, 175 articles were found in the initial search, and after removing the duplicates and nonrelevant, 13 eligible articles were included in the study. In most of the studies, the samples were digested with H₂O₂, and the microplastics were mainly analyzed using a variety of microscopes and µRaman spectroscopy. The abundance of microplastics in the indoor environment was much higher than in the outdoor environment.
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that there is the required equipment for the sampling and analysis of microplastics in air and settled dust in Iran, and these pollutants have been detected in both indoor and outdoor environments.