Monitoring and evaluating the control effect of dust suppressant on heavy metals based on ecological and health risks: a case study of Beijing

Dust suppressant is widely applied to control the road dust pollution, while the unified statement on its control effect has not been obtained. To fill this gap, an experiment was conducted at four typical sites in Beijing, where dust suppressant and water were sprayed at test and control sites, respectively. Samples were collected to analyze the concentrations of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and heavy metals. With the application of potential ecological risk index and probabilistic health risk assessment, the ecological and health risks of heavy metals were obtained. Results showed that compared with control sites, the total concentrations of heavy metals in PM 10 and PM 2.5 at test sites decreased by 1555.40 and 784.95 ng/m 3 in 14 days, with the suppression rate of 11.95% and 12.06%. Especially, the total ecological risks of heavy metals in PM 10 reduced from 165.77 to 143.64, with their ecological hazard level changed from medium to slight. The carcinogenic risks of PM 2.5 and PM 10 reduced by 0.60E−05 and 1.52E−06, respectively. As for the non-carcinogenic risks, there were a reduction of 5.78% and 12.28% for PM 2.5 and PM 10 , respectively. Notably, the ecological risk of Pb was the highest; Cr and Zn contributed the most to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk. Finally, to mitigate road dust pollution from an integration perspective, some preventive measures were proposed.