Assessment of pollution load index and possible ecological risks of heavy metal pollution on petroleum products workers

Abstract

Occupational workers of cooking gas and heating kerosene in open yard may be affected by several heavy metal ions that may emit from these products. The current study was designed to assess Pb, Cu, and Zn blood content in workers of these yards in 8 randomly selected yards within Baghdad province from January to May 2024. A total of 30 workers of various working periods were subjected to this study in addition to 20 individuals to act as a control, as well as soil samples from all sites to estimate heavy metal concentration and to determine pollution load index levels. Also, some details were collected such as ages, working time, and smoking. The obtained results have shown that the soil is classified as deteriorated on-site quality. Additionally, there was no impact of individual ages on all blood Pb, Cu, and Zn content. However, very significant differences (P≥0.001) between concentrations of all examined heavy metal ions of both examined control and occupational workers where the obtained mean values were in control sample 15.335±3.299µg/dl of Pb, 125.55±22.377µg/dl of Cu and 99.1±13.824µg/dl of Zn while in workers, they were 52.4±5.516µg/dl, 157.3±22.569µg/dl and 114.93±12.686µg/dl of similarly Pb, Cu and Zn blood content.  Also, this work has detected significant effects (P≥0.01) of smoking on the blood content of these heavy metals where the concentration was found significantly (P≥0.05) higher in smoking workers and they recorded mean values of 55.733±4.144µg/dl, 159.5±19.801µg/dl and 119.667±11.441µg/dl for Pb, Cu, and Zn respectively while these mean values in non-smoker workers were found fewer. Meanwhile, the working period had a clear and significant (P≥0.01) impact upon examined blood heavy metal content where the mean values of working time were recorded higher in those workers as the working period increased. Yet, significant differences were found in some hematological parameters of workers via complete blood count.