Finding a suitable site to dispose solid waste is a difficult task for municipality because it is necessary to consider the different factors and criteria in the landfill siting process. In this study, in order to consider all parameters, a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used for landfill site selection. For the purpose of making decisions in landfill site selection a hierarchy structural was formed and different parameters have been identified, including distance to groundwater, distance to surface water, sensitive ecosystems, land cover, distance to urban and rural areas, land uses, distance to roads, slope, soil type and distance to waste generation places. At first, the rating method was used to evaluate each criterion individually. Then, the relative importance of criteria to each other was determined by an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) method was applied to evaluate the land suitability. The results showed that 38% of the study area have high suitability for land filling. Finally, five sites were a candidate for field investigation with more details.

The concentration of heavy metals in household dust and their health risks on children living in different areas of Ahvaz city was investigated during November 2013 to October 2014 in Iran. Totally, 108 dust samples were taken from their houses in three different areas including S₁ (industrial), S₂ (heavy traffic) and S₃ (residential zone far away from industrial and traffic emission sources). The samples were analyzed for eight selected heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Mn, Pb, Zn, Co and Cd) using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES, Spectro Arcos Model, Germany). Exposure and risk assessment of these metals were estimated using USEPA’s exposure parameters. Results showed that the mean values of all heavy metals in tempered months were significantly higher than the other months (p < 0.05). Cancer risk and non-carcinogenic risk (hazard index) of Ni, Cr, Cd and Pb from indoor dust exposure were estimated for children via three exposure pathways (ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact). The non-cancer risks to children in all samples were lower than acceptable level of 1, while the potential cancer risks from Ni intake in S₁ and S₂ were 1.57E − 06 and 1.19E − 06, respectively, and for Cr in S₁ and S₂, it was 1.43E − 06 and 1.15E − 06, respectively, which these values were slightly higher than the acceptable level (1 × 10⁻⁶). In conclusion, household dust of Ahvaz city would probably have a significant potential to cause cancer in most exposed children.