A preliminary survey of lead in Kuala Lumpur urban dust was carried out. Lead levels of22.9 to

6986.6 JJgg-l were obtained, depending on the locations where.the dust was collected. There is a direct

relationship between lead level in dust and traffic density. The amount of lead leachable by rain water is

sufficiently high to warrant further investigation

Lee, C. K.

Lim, C. G

Low, K. S.

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository

Pertanika 11(1),157-160 (1988)COMMUNICATION VLead in Kuala Lumpur Urban DustABSTRAKSatu siasatan rintis bagi plumbum dalam debu-debu bandar Kuala Lumpur telah dijalankan. Parasplumbum dari 22.9 hingga 6986.6 JJg g-l telah didapati, bergantung kepada kawasan dari mana debu di-kumpul. Terdapat satu perhubungan di antara paras plumbum dan kepadatan trafik. Jumlah plumbumyang dapat dilesapkan dalam air hujan adalah tinggi dan masalah ini perlu dikaji lebih dalam.ABSTRACTA preliminary survey of lead in Kuala Lumpur urban dust was carried out. Lead levels of22.9 to6986.6 JJgg-l were obtained, depending on the locations where.the dust was collected. There is a directrelationship between lead level in dust and traffic density. The amount of lead leachable by rain water issufficiently high to warrant further investigation.INTRODUCTIONLead pollution and its effect on healthois a matterof general concern, especially its potential dangerto children (Chilsom, 1971; King, 1971). One ofthe main sources of lead pollution is attributed toautomobile exhaust (Day, 1977; Low et ai, 1981).Various direct and indirect methods have beenused to measure ambient lead levels, and streetdust has been used by many investigators toexamine environmental lead pollution ( asralla,1985; Lau and Wong, 1982; Fergusson etal, 1980;Day et ai, 1975). Lead levels varying from 85 to5060 JJg g-l , depending on the location of dustcollection, have been reported.The present work is a preliminary study of thedistribution of lead in street dust in and aroundKuala Lumpur city; an investigation on the solubi-lity of lead in rainwater is also included. The studyis aimed at providing some information on thepossible source of lead contamination in this area.MATERIALS AND METHODSSeventy-seven dust samples were collected fromJune, 1984 to May 1985. The method of samplecollection was as reported by asralla (1984).The samples were- randomly collected from high-ways, roadside, footpaths, car parks, bus stops,playground and a chemical laboratory in and aroundKuala Lumpur. Fig. 1 shows the location of Kuala'_umpur in relation to Petaling Jaya and Serdang.Fig. 1. Kuala Lumpur in relation to Petaling Jara alldSerdang. The map is adapted from that of ShamSani, Sains Malaysia. 5(1),27-37(1976).The dust samples were sieved through a 0.5mm sieve before analysis. One g sample wasdigested with 20 cm 3 -of 8M HN0 3 as reported bySolomon and Hartford (1976). Lead content wase.K. LEE, K.S. LOW AND e.G. LIMdetermined by inductively coupled plasma atomicemission spectrometry (ICP-AES) at lead emissionline of 220.36 nm using Labtest Plasmascan 710.Two dust samples were fractionated on thebasis of particle size. This was carried out usingsieves of apertures 850, 300 and 75 Jim. Digestionand determination of lead of each fraction is asdescribed above.In the solubility study, three dust samples ofhigh (6989 Jig g-l), medium,(360 Jig g-I) and low(22 Jig g-I) lead contents were selected arbitrarily.Twenty (20) g dust (850 Jim), in a polypropylenebottle, was shaken with 100 cm 3 of rainwaterwhich was collected from a gutter at UniversitiPertanian Malaysia, fifteen minutes after a heavyrainfall started. Maximum agitation rates wereused to simulate water runoff conditions during arainstorm. Aliquots of 10 cm 3 were withdrawn athourly intervals during the first four hours of theexperiment. They were immediately filteredthrough No.42 Whatman paper. pH of the filtratewas determined before a drop of 6M HN0 3 wasadded to maintain lead in soluble form and toreduce lead adsorption by the polyethylene bottle.Lead was determined by ICP-AES.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONLead in DustTable 1 lists the lead content in dust samplescollected at different locations. Although noactual traffic density data were collected, thereappears to be a correlation between lead contentand traffic density. A similar trend has beenobserved by Nasralla (1984), Fergusson et al.(1980) and Day et al. (1975).The highest lead content in dust was found insamples collected along the highway where thetraffic is heaviest.The levels of lead in dusts collected at busyroads in the city centre and roads with light trafficin the outskirts reflect the traffic density in theseareas. Day et al. (1975) reported a mean lead of100 I Jig g-I in major roads with moderate to heavytraffic density, and mean lead of 888 and 933 Jigg-l in streets with moderate to light traffic. Thesevalues are comparable to those obtained in thisstudy. The same trend is observed in the lead levelsof dust samples collected at the various open-aircar parks. In the city where the number of vehiclesentering and leaving car parks is greater, the leadTABLE 1Lead in dustLocationHighwayRoads (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)Parking LotKuala Lumpur, City (K.L.)Outskirts of Kuala LumpurPetaling JayaIn and around UPM, Serdangin schools(a) Kuala Lumpur(b) Petaling Jaya(c) UPM, SerdangSample Size8816933248Lead (j..Lg g-l)Range547.2 - 6986.6360.5 - 2833.760.7 - 445.4131.9 - 2146.4141.6 - 254.147.9 - 55.0737.5 - 1497.141.8 - 358.064.2 - 211.7Mean3313.41041.3223.2821.2188.051.51117.3150.3155.3Bus StopPhiygroundUPM LaboratoryHospital CompoundDomestic Residence·UPM - Universiti Pertanian Malaysia.15866211PERTANlKA VOL. 11 NO.1, 1988179.1 - 3204.622.9 - 166.435.1 - 148.4949.860.491.8733.91053.8LEAD IN KUALA LUMPUR URBAN DUST£;. Medium [Pblo Low [PblTime(hour!Variation of pH with contact time, initial pH= 6.4.High[Pbl432Fig. 2.108~ -6 ~pH420level is higher. The high density of vehicle move-ment also accounts for the high levels of lead atus stops and hospital compounds.The average lead content (60.4 /lg g-l) of thesamples collected at the playground, however, islower than the level of 1014 /lg g-1 reported byDay et al. (1975) and 815 /lg g-1 reported byNasralla (1984). It would appear that the playfields in schools as well as public playgroundswhere samples were collected are somehow shiel-ded from surrounding traffic movements.The dust samples collected at the chemicallaboratory did not have high lead level (91.8 /lgg-l) whereas Solomon and Hartford (1976) havereported lead level as high as 11,400 /lg g-1 inchemical laboratories. The lead content of theresidential sample is comparable to that reportedby Nasralla (1984). A substantial fraction of thisrelatively high lead level (1953.6 /lg g-1) is pro-bably due to lead settling. from automobile emis-sions. There is no known lead emitting source inthe vicinity.Fractionisation ofDustT~e result of the fractionisation of dust on thebasis of particle size is given in Table 2. Thehighest concentrations of lead occur in the dustwith the smallest particle size. The same trend wasreported by Fergusson et al (1980). Presumablysmaller particles with larger surface area arecapable of retaining more lead particulates emittedfrom motor vehicle exhaust.pH and Lead SolubilityThe change of pH with contact time in rainwaterin the solubility experiments is shown in Figs. 2and 3. There appeared to be a buffering effect inthe system, and pH invariably equilibrated atabout 7 for samples with high lead content and atabout 6 for samples with low lead content. Thiscould be due to the presence of clays in the sam-ples (Solomon and Hartford, 1977).Fig. 4 shows the solubility of lead in rain-water. At pH 6.4, the solubility ranged from 0.10'to 1.59 mg I -1 for samples containg 22/lg g-1 to6989 J.lg g-1 lead respectively. These amounts arelower than the amounts of 0.5 to 5 mg I-I re-ported by Solomon and Hartford (1979). Accord-ing to the Malaysian standards for industrialeffluents (1979), the allowable level of lead fordischarge into inland waters within the catchmentareas was 0.1 0 mg I -1 while the level for dischargeTABLE 2Lead distribution according to particle sizesize (!fin) Sample 1 (Low Pb)wt % /l g g-1Sample 2 (High Ph)wt % J.lgg-1300 - 85075 - 300<753.8567.9528.2014.031.9189.511.7363.3723.905112.06441.310801.8iPERTANIKA VOL. 11 NO. I, 1988C.K. LEE, K.S. LOW AND C.G. LIM8o Low [Pbl'" MedllJm[Pble rllgh[PblCONCLUSIONThe level of lead in street dust in urban KualaLumpur is generally comparable to that found inthe other parts of the world. There appears to be adirect relationship between lead level and trafficdensity. The amount of lead leachable by rainwater appears high enough to be hazardous to theecosystem.A wider scope of this investigation is thusnecessary in order to establish statistical correla-tion of lead in dust with traffic density. In addi-tion, an in-depth study of lead solubility in rain wa-ter is warranted.2 C.K. LeeK.S. Lowe.G. LimVariotion of pH wi(~ contact time; initiol pH= 4.0Time [hourIaFig. 3.2 3 4 Chemistry DepartmentFaculty ofScience and Environmental StudiesUniversiti Pertanian Malaysia,43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.Fig. 4. Solubility of lead in rainwater.REFERENCESDAY, J.P., M. HART and M.S. ROBINSON (1975): Leadin urban street dust. Nature 253: 1343-345.FERGUSSON, J.E., R.W. HAYES, T.S. YONG and S.H.THIEW (1980): Heavy metal pollution by traffic inChristchurch, New Zealand: Lead and cadmiumcontent of dust, soil, and plant samples. New Zea-land J. Sci, 23: 293-310.LAU, W.M. and H.M. WONG (1982): An ecologicalsurvey of lead content in roadside dusts and soils inHong Kong. Environ. Res. 28: 39-54.LOW, K.S., C.K. LEE and G. SINGH (1981): Airbornelead at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur.Pertanika, 4(2): 193-196.MAHESWAREN, A. (1979) Regulatory measures andprogrammes for water pollution control in Malaysia.Paper presented at Symposium Megenai Perkem-bangan Baru Dalam Teknologi Pengolahan Effluent,Pulau Pinang.NASRALLA, M.M. (1984): Lead in Jeddah urban dust.Environ. Poll Series B, 8: 133-141.SOLOMON, R.L. and J.W. HARTFORD (1976): Leadana caamiuffilnasmall urban community. Environ.Sci Techno!, 10: 773-777.SOLOMON, R.L and J.W. HARTFORD (1977): Sourcesof automobile lead contamination of surface water.J. WPCF, Dec., 2502-2504.o Low [PblII High [PblLl.Medlum [Pbl3Time [hourI43EQ,Q,~ 2.r>--l1. La 2into any other waters is 0.50 mg 1-1. It thusappears that the amount of Pb eachable by rainwater is high enough to pose a threat to waterquality.(Received 3 December, 1986).160 PERTANIKA VOL. 11 NO.1, I988

Lead in Kuala Lumpur Urban Dust

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