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.