Heavy metal contamination in street dust and roadside soil along the major national road in Kavalaʹs region, Greece

A total of 96 street dusts and 96 roadside soils have been sampled from three different localities (urban, industrial, peripheral) of the city of Kavala (Greece) and analyzed for Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Cd, As and Hg using the atomic absorption spectrophotometric method. Results showed that dust and soil samples from the urban and industrial area contained significant levels of the metals studied compared to the values from the control site. The mean values for Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Cd, As and Hg in street dust were 300.9, 123.9, 271.6, 57.5, 196.0, 0.2, 16.7 and 0.1 μg g− 1 respectively, whereas for roadside soil they were 359.4, 42.7, 137.8, 58.2, 193.2, 0.2, 62.3 and 0.1 μg g− 1. Street dust distribution patterns are almost similar to those found for roadside soils. The obtained results indicate, that urban and industrial street dust samples contain high levels of Pb, Cu, Zn, and As, as well as remarkable levels of Cd and Hg whose primary contributors appear to be vehicular local traffic and the nearby phosphoric fertilizer and petrochemical industry plants.