Distribution and Health Risk Assessment of Trace Metals in Soils in the Golden Triangle of Southern Fujian Province, China

Sha Huang, Guofan Shao, Luyan Wang, Lin Wang and Lina Tang
Additional contact information
Sha Huang: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Guofan Shao: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Luyan Wang: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Lin Wang: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Lina Tang: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: In recent years, intensified industrialization and rapid urbanization have accelerated the accumulation of trace metals in topsoils of the Golden Triangle of Southern Fujian Province in China. Trace metals can cause adverse impacts on ecosystems and human health. In order to assess the ecological and human health risks of trace metals in the Golden Triangle region and to determine the distribution and degree of pollution of trace metals, 456 soil samples were collected from 28 districts. The concentrations of six metals (As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were analyzed to assess ecological risk using the geoaccumulation index ( I geo ) and the potential ecological risk index (RI). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) model was applied to calculate health risk. The average soil concentrations of the six elements are ranked as follows: As < Ni < Cu < Cr < Pb < Zn. Inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation maps showed that Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn are enriched in the soils of developed areas, while As and Pb are enriched in the soils of undeveloped areas. The I geo showed that the levels of metals in most soil samples are below polluting levels. Similarly, RI values indicated that trace metals pose low potential ecological risk in the region’s soils. The Hazard Quotient (HQ) ranked the mean total noncarcinogenic risk of the six metals, for both children and adults, as follows: As > Pb > Cr > Ni > Cu >Zn. The mean carcinogenic risk (CR) of the metals in the region’s soils are ranked as follows: Cr > As > Ni. The Hazard Index (HI) values indicated that 3.7% of soils contained unsafe levels of toxic metals for children and total carcinogenic risk (TCR) values indicated that 23.3% of soils contained unsafe levels, indicating that children are facing both noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks from trace metals. Principal component analysis (PCA) and matrix cluster analysis were used to identify pollution sources and classified trace metals and soil samples into two and five groups, respectively. The five groups represented the effects of different land use types, including agricultural area, residential and public area, industrial area, forest, and industrial area and roadside, based on the contents of trace metals in soils. Industrial, agricultural and traffic activities attribute to the enrichment of Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the region’s soils. Moreover, the accumulation of As and Pb are also attributed to atmospheric deposition. These results can contribute to a better understanding of pollution, ecological risks, and human health risks from trace metals on large regional scales like the Golden Triangle of Southern Fujian Province.

Keywords: trace metals; the Golden Triangle of Southern Fujian Province; urban soil; ecological risk; health risk (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/1660-4601/16/1/97/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/1/97/ (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:16:y:2018:i:1:p:97-:d:194126

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 ().