Abstract：This research focused on the potential health risk assessment of heavy metals (including As) pollution in urban topsoil and dust from Tongling, a typical nonferrous metal mining city, China. Samples were collected from sixty four sampling sites covering six land-use types, that is, industrial, residential, commercial, educational and traffic areas, as well as city squares. The heavy metal (Pb, Cu, Cr, Zn, Ni, As and Cd) contents of all samples were analyzed and health risk assessment were conducted for children and adult respectively, using the risk models recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The levels of heavy metal elements in the urban topsoil and dust of Tongling are much higher than the natural soil background level in the regions, suggesting that the urban topsoil and dust have been heavily polluted by those metals. The exposure to Cr, Ni, As and Cd results in a cancer risk value of 4.30′10-7, 7.18′10-9, 4.26′10-4 and 7.58′10-8, respectively, and the mean cancer risk for such six land-use types vary in the range of 1.55′10-4-9.14′10-4, significantly higher than the acceptable or tolerable range of threshold values 10-6~10-4 recommended by USEPA, and the 5.0′10-5 probability level deemed unacceptable by the International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP). The exposure to topsoil and dust yields an aggregate Hazard Index of 5.20 and 16.58 for children, respectively, while the exposure to dust results in an aggregate Hazard Index of 2.80 for adult, far exceeding the threshold value of 1.0. As a predominant single contributor both to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks, arsenic is the trace element of most concern. In addition, the highest risk is associated with ingestion of soil particles.
李如忠, 潘成荣, 陈婧, 姜艳敏, 丁贵珍. 铜陵市区表土与灰尘重金属污染健康风险评估[J]. 中国环境科学, 2012, 32(12): 2261-2270.
LI Ru-Zhong, PAN Cheng-Rong, CHEN Jing, JIANG Yan-Min, DING Gui-Zhen. Heavy metal contamination and health risk assessment for urban topsoil and dust in Tongling City. CHINA ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCECE, 2012, 32(12): 2261-2270.
