Distribution, source, water quality and health risk assessment of dissolved heavy metals in major rivers in Wuhan, China

Xingyong Zhang; Qixin Wu; Shilin Gao; Zhuhong Wang; Shouyang He

doi:10.7717/peerj.11853

Distribution, source, water quality and health risk assessment of dissolved heavy metals in major rivers in Wuhan, China

PeerJ. 2021 Jul 27:9:e11853. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11853. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xingyong Zhang¹, Qixin Wu^{1

2}, Shilin Gao¹, Zhuhong Wang³, Shouyang He¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Karst Geological Resources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
² The College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
³ School of Public Health, Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Disease Monitoring of Ministry of Education, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.

Abstract

Heavy metals are released into the water system through various natural processes and anthropogenic activities, thus indirectly or directly endangering human health. The distribution, source, water quality and health risk assessment of dissolved heavy metals (V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, As, Mo, Sb) in major rivers in Wuhan were analyzed by correlation analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA), heavy metal pollution index (HPI), hazard index (HI) and carcinogenic risk (CR). The results showed that the spatial variability of heavy metal contents was pronounced. PCA and CA results indicated that natural sources controlled Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Mo, and industrial emissions were the dominant factor for V, Zn and Sb, while As was mainly from the mixed input of urban and agricultural activities. According to the heavy metal pollution index (HPI, ranging from 23.74 to 184.0) analysis, it should be noted that As and Sb contribute most of the HPI values. The health risk assessment using HI and CR showed that V and Sb might have a potential non-carcinogenic risk and As might have a potential carcinogenic risk to adults and children in the study area (CR value exceeded target risk 10^-4). At the same time, it was worth noting that As might have a potential non-carcinogenic risk for children around QLR (HI value exceeded the threshold value 1). The secular variation of As and Sb should be monitor in high-risk areas. The results of this study can provide important data for improving water resources management efficiency and heavy metal pollution prevention in Wuhan.

Keywords: Health risk assessment; Heavy metal pollution index; Heavy metals; Source; Wuhan.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41863004, 41863003, 41763019), the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Guizhou Province, China (U1612442), the first-class discipline construction project in Guizhou Province-Public Health and Preventive Medicine (No. 2017[85], GNYL [2017]007), and the Guizhou Science and Technology Support Program ([2019]2832, [2016]1028). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.