Determination of Some Heavy Metals in Environment of Bakery and Samoon Furnaces at Erbil City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

This study was investigated for the assessment of dust contamination with some heavy metals in Naans bakery and Samoon furnace environment and to indicate their potential sources of origin. Fifteen locally Naans bakery and Samoons furnace places were chosen for sampling of accumulated residue dust and heating fuel in Erbil city, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Naan bakeries used liquefied gas (NGB) for heating while Samoon furnaces used liquefied kerosene (OSF) or liquefied gas (GSF) as heating source. The wet acid digestion method was applied for the sample treatment using a mixture of concentrated perchloric acid (HClO4 70%), hydrochloric acid (HCl 37%), and nitric acid (HNO3 65%) with a volume ratio (1:1:2). The analyses were carried out using flame atomic absorption spectrometer to determine some selected heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Cd, and Ni). The results showed that the recorded percentage for observed metals (OM) from the entire of the investigated dust samples (n=15) were different and individually equal to 20%, 60%, 93.3%, and 100% for each of Cd, Cr, Ni, and Cu respectively. The level of metals content in most of dust samples exceeded standard permissible limits for metals in dust environment. The recorded level for total selected metal load (TSML) in dust samples of NGB environment (392.23 µg∙g−1) was approximately twice times more than each of the OSF (207.45 µg∙g−1) and GSF (211.31 µg∙g−1) environment. Results data showed that the environment of most bakery Naan and Samoon furnace was unsafe for baking and contaminated with these heavy metals.