POTENTIAL HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT FOR SOIL AND AIR HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION IN BAGHDAD CITY

This paper was submitted an Environmental Risk Assessment process which is based on four steps defined by both National Academy of Science and the EPA. These are: Hazard Identification, Exposure Assessment, Toxicity Assessment, and Risk Characterization. It was taken into account two environmental media (Soil and Air). At first the concentration of some heavy metal (Cd, Cr, Zn, Ni and Pb) was collected from previous studied conducted in soil media at three locations (Residential area, Industrial area and Commercial area)in Urban Soil within Baghdad City. For air media the lead concentration was taken from previous studied conducted at two locations (Residential area, Industrial area) in Baghdad city. Also It was taken into account one environmental soil media. The average concentration of heavy metal (Cd, Ni and Pb) was collected from previous studied conducted in Baghdad soil media and different towns samples of environmental soil media. Based on these test results and data gathered, the potential human health risk assessment based on EPA model was used to calculate different types of Intake through (ingestion, dermal) for soil media and (ingestion, dermal and inhalation) for air media, noncarcinogen Hazard Index (HI) and carcinogen Risk (R) resulted from these exposure routes was also calculated. The results of the risk assessment indicated that the highest risks for individual element for both adults and children. Cumulative hazard quotient index (THI) for the study area showed that the adults and children population were seriously at the risk of chronic non-carcinogenic health problem.