## 3 Results and Discussion
### Risk Assessment  
The adjusted hazard index for both children and adults (HI\({}_{\text{adjusted}}\)) and the individual children and adults hazard index (HI\({}_{\text{child}}\) and HI\({}_{\text{adult}}\)), considering all selected variables of the silt and sand fractions of the geographic materials, are presented in Figure 7. The dermal contact and inhalation hazard quotient (HQ) were considered negligible, only being considered the ingestion route (HI \(\approx\) HQ\({}_{\text{ingestion}}\)). Children, due to body development, are more sensitive, which is reflected in the higher risk of systemic toxicity (non-carcinogenic HI). All samples revealed HI \(>\) 1 (threshold) in both sand and silt fractions, ranked MZY \(>\) MZW \(>\) MER \(>\) MXR \(>\) RW \(>\) MIR \(>\) RR \(>\) MIW \(>\) MZR and MIW \(>\) MER \(>\) MZY \(>\) MZR \(>\) MIR \(>\) MXR \(>\) MZW \(>\) RR \(>\) RW for sand and silt fractions, respectively. The results suggested that non-carcinogenic health outcomes might occur since exposure to elements is higher than the reference dose. The variable that most impacted children, adults, and adjusted HI was Zr, with mean contributions of 93.2 (sand) and 85.1% (salt) (Figure 8). Chronic Zr exposure can cause respiratory tract irritation, dermatitis, and pulmonary fibrosis [96]. Samples Br, Ca, Cr, Pb, Mg, P, K, Si, Na, S, and Ti concentration do not pose a non-carcinogenic risk to humans. Additionally, Ba, Cu, Fe, Sr, and Zn HI contribution was considered negligible (<1%) for the total HI in both fractions. Variable V presented a maximum contribution of 7.7 (sand; MZR sample) and 12.1% (salt; RW sample), followed by Al with 7.6 (sand; RR sample) and 6.4% (salt; RR sample). Studied geographic samples do not present a carcinogenic risk, ranging from 1.22E-08 to 5.14E-07 and 3.79E-07 to 6.48E-07 on sand and silt fractions, respectively. Pb is the only variable contributing to the risk result, with other variables being negligible. Pb toxicity can cause several neurological outcomes such as reduced cognitive development and behavioral changes, which are mostly manifested in children, as well as renal tumors and high blood pressure in adults [23; 97].  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline  & **Ca** & **Cl** & **Cu** & **Fe** & **K** & **Mg** & **Mn** & **Na** & **P** & **S** & **Zn** \\ \hline Ca & 1 & 0.6 & **0.750 \({}^{*}\)** & 0.117 & 0.117 & 0.067 & 0.234 & 0.627 & \(-\)0.350 & \(-\)0.059 & \(-\)0.100 \\ Cl & \(0.167\) & 1 & 0.350 & 0.583 & \(-\)0.117 & 0.450 & \(-\)0.142 & **0.780 \({}^{*}\)** & \(-\)0.167 & 0.326 & \(-\)0.167 \\ Cu & \(0.281\) & 0.434 & 1 & 0.017 & \(-\)0.033 & 0.100 & 0.276 & 0.254 & \(-\)0.383 & \(-\)0.109 & 0.017 \\ Fe & \(-0.267\) & \(0.517\) & \(-0.136\) & 1 & \(-\)0.450 & 0.517 & \(-\)0.251 & 0.441 & \(-\)0.417 & **0.666 \({}^{*}\)** & 0.383 \\ K & \(-0.283\) & \(-0.133\) & \(-0.443\) & 0.483 & 1 & \(-\)0.167 & 0.385 & 0.051 & \(-\)0.283 & 0.033 \({}^{*}\)** & \(-\)**0.833 \({}^{*}\)** \\ Mg & \(-0.350\) & \(0.133\) & \(-0.196\) & 0.2 & 0.650 & 1 & \(-\)0.092 & **0.678 \({}^{*}\)** & 0.133 & **0.820 \({}^{**}\)** & \(-\)0.117 \\ Mn & \(-0.267\) & 0.117 & \(-0.170\) & **0.700 \({}^{*}\)** & **0.883 \({}^{**}\)** & 0.650 & 1 & 0.043 & \(-\)0.226 & \(-\)0.084 & \(-\)0.075 \\ Na & **0.792 \({}^{*}\)** & 0.366 & 0.548 & \(-\)0.034 & \(-\)0.460 & \(-\)0.366 & \(-\)0.187 & 1 & 0.017 & 0.562 & \(-\)0.288 \\ P & 0.600 & \(-0.083\) & 0.366 & **\(-\)0.817 \({}^{**}\)** & **\(-\)0.717 \({}^{*}\)** & \(-\)0.417 & **\(-\)0.783 \({}^{*}\)** & 0.468 & 1 & \(-\)0.226 & \(-\)0.050 \\ S & 0.367 & **0.817 \({}^{**}\)** & 0.068 & 0.367 & 0.117 & 0.317 & 0.167 & 0.221 & \(-\)0.033 & 1 & \(-\)0.151 \\ Zn & 0.237 & 0.627 & 0.199 & 0.373 & 0.390 & 0.339 & 0.356 & 0.009 & \(-\)0.254 & 0.797 \({}^{*}\) & 1 \\ \hline \end{tabular} In bold, \({}^{**}\)\(p\) < 0.01, and \({}^{*}\)\(p\) < 0.05.  
\end{table}
Table 4: [PERSON]’s correlation of essential macronutrient elements of sand (in blue) and silt (in black) fractions.