Distribution of Arsenic and Risk Assessment of Activities on Soccer Pitches Irrigated with Arsenic-Contaminated Water

Nadia Martínez-Villegas, Abraham Hernández, Diana Meza-Figueroa and Bhaskar Sen Gupta
Additional contact information
Nadia Martínez-Villegas: IPICyT, Instituto Potosino de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica, Division de Geociencias Aplicadas, Camino a la Presa San Jose No. 2055, Col. Lomas 4a Sec., San Luis Potosi 78216, SLP, Mexico
Abraham Hernández: IPICyT, Instituto Potosino de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica, Division de Geociencias Aplicadas, Camino a la Presa San Jose No. 2055, Col. Lomas 4a Sec., San Luis Potosi 78216, SLP, Mexico
Diana Meza-Figueroa: Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Sonora, Rosales y Encinas s/n, Col. Centro, Hermosillo 83000, Sonora, Mexico
Bhaskar Sen Gupta: School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure & Society, Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, Water Academy, Heriot-Watt University, EGIS 2.02A William Arrol Building, Scotland EH14 4AS, UK

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: The aim of this research was to estimate the risk of human exposure to arsenic due to sporting activities in a private soccer club in Mexico, where arsenic-contaminated water was regularly used for irrigation. For this purpose, the total concentration in the topsoil was considered for risk assessment. This was accomplished through three main objectives: (1) measuring arsenic concentrations in irrigation water and irrigated soils, (2) determining arsenic spatial distribution in shallow soils with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) using geostatistical analysis, and (3) collecting field and survey data to develop a risk assessment calculation for soccer activities in the soccer club. The results showed that the average arsenic concentrations in shallow soils (138.1 mg/kg) were 6.2 times higher than the Mexican threshold for domestic soils (22 mg/kg). Furthermore, dermal contact between exposed users and contaminated soils accounted for a maximum carcinogenic risk value of 1.8 × 10 −5 , which is one order of magnitude higher than the recommended risk value, while arsenic concentrations in the irrigation water were higher (6 mg/L) than the WHO’s permissible threshold in drinking water, explaining the contamination of soils after irrigation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first risk study regarding dermal contact with arsenic following regular grass irrigation with contaminated water in soccer pitches.

Keywords: arsenic; water; soccer fields; soil; irrigation; risk characterization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1060/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1060/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:6:p:1060-:d:148663

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().