en Environmental pollution Original articles <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">Introduction:</span></span></span></i></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;"> Road dust is a group of solid particles that are presented in the urban areas and are originated from both natural and human-induced sources. This study aims to determine concentrations of heavy metals in urban dusts in Behbahan to identify their natural or anthropogenic sources.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">Materials and Methods:</span></span></span></i></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;"> In this study, a total of 20 samples were collected from main roads with different land uses, including residential, industrial, and commercial areas in Behbahan city, Khuzestan province. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri,&quot;sans-serif&quot;"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">Results:</span></span></span></i></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;"> The results of mineralogy identification showed that </span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">calcite, dolomite, quartz, albite, and gypsum were</span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;"> the most identified minerals in dust samples. In addition, heavy metals of As, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zn, Pb, Sb, U, Cd, Hg, and Mo were investigated in the collected settled road dust. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">The </span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">results indicated that the level of heavy metals, such as Co and Sb in the places with high traffic load were much higher than other areas. The highest I_geo value for Pb, Cu, and Sb were 1.39, 2.19, 2.46, respectively, suggesting that Pb, Cu, and Sb in the road dust were originated from the anthropogenic sources. Moreover, the results demonstrated that road dust may pose serious health threats to humans (both adults and children). </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">Conclusion: </span></span></span></i></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;">In this study, the concentration of heavy metals in road dust of Behbahan was investigated. The concentration of heavy metals, such as Cu, Zn, Ni, As, Cr, Pb, U, and Fe in the road dust of the commercial section were much higher than other sections.</span></span></span></div> Dust, Metals, Heavy, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Behbahan City. 1632 1646 http://jehsd.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-390-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Zeinab Ghaedrahmat Z_rahmati4007@yahoo.com 0000-0002-2243-143x No Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Shoushtar Faculty of Medical Sciences, Shoushtar, Iran. Halimeh Almasi h.almasi14@yahoo.com 0000-0002-8014-1465 No Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Shoushtar Faculty of Medical Sciences, Shoushtar, Iran. Razegheh Akhbarizadeh razegheh.azadeh@gmail.com 0000-0002-9782-5708 No System Environmental Health and Energy Research Center, The Persian Gulf Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran. Mehdi Ahmadi ahmadi241@gmail.com 0000-0002-9227-7562 Yes Environmental Technologies Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.