زهره ابراهیمی خوسفی

Urban air pollution caused by car emissions and industrial activities is one of the most salient causes of health threat in urban areas. Considering that taxi drivers are exposed to such pollutants all the time for several hours, the present study sought to determine the level of metal elements in the hair of this working population and to examine the determining factors.In this study, hair samples from 88 taxi drivers in Kerman city were analyzed for concentrations of iron, copper, chromium, cadmium, zinc, lead, aluminum, cobalt, and nickel using ICP-OES instrument. The relationship between metal elements (MEs) and influencing factors was investigated using Spearman’s test. Mean group differences were evaluated with Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests. Nickel had no strong correlation with chromium, cadmium and aluminum (rho = 0.2; Sig < 0.05). Other MEs exhibited strong positive correlations with each other, with iron showing the strongest correlation (rho = 0.34 to 0.84; Sig < 0.05), indicating that the elements may have originated from common sources. Age exhibited a significant positive correlation with nickel levels (rho = 0.47; Sig < 0.01). Using the Mann–Whitney U test, a significant difference was observed in the average nickel concentration between the hair of young and middle-aged drivers (Sig = 0.006). In addition, hair nickel levels were significantly different among drivers in the northern, western and eastern regions of the city (Sig < 0.03). However, there was no significant difference in nickel levels between drivers with less than a decade of work experience and those with over a decade (Sig > 0.05). About 75% of samples had lead concentrations below 18 mg/kg, while 25% had levels exceeding this.