| Summary: | Heavy metal pollution on urban roads is an important problem for the city environment. Lead pollution characteristics in the dusts around urban roads has been studied and assessed in Shihezi, west China. Pb concentrations and Pb isotopic compositions in dusts were measured using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The Geoaccumulation Index was applied to the assessment of the degree of Pb pollution. The results show that the range of lead concentrations in the dusts is 19.36-84.63 mg/kg (mean concentration: 37.85 mg/kg), which is higher than the local soil background value and lower than values in other big cities in China. The results indicate that a considerable Pb contamination in the Shihezi city environment was significantly affected by anthropogenic activities. The range of the Geoaccumulation Index is -0.59-1.54 (average value is 0.30), indicating that Pb is at the lightly to moderately polluted' level. The Pb isotope ratios in dusts (206Pb/207Pb: 1.159-1.182 and 208Pb/207Pb: 2.391-2.457) were similar to those in coal combustion and building materials.
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