With the rapid development of electronic technology, soil heavy metal contamination caused by electronic waste dismantling activities has attracted the attention of many researchers. To investigate the contamination status and spatial distribution of Cd in soil-crop systems around an e-waste dismantling area, 171 pairs of soil and crop samples were collected for analysis. The concentrations of cadmium in root vegetable soil, leaf vegetable soil, solanaceous vegetable soil, and orchard soil were (1.292±0.647), (1.010±0.201), (0.921±0.125), and (0.861±0.135) mg·kg-1, respectively. The average values of cadmium in these four soil types were 10.0, 7.8, 7.1, and 6.3 times the background values of soil Cd in Zhejiang Province, respectively, and 4.31, 3.4, 3.07, and 2.72 times the risk screening values for soil contamination of agricultural land, clearly indicating cadmium accumulation in the soil. However, only a small percentage of crops contained cadmium levels that exceeded food safety limits. Moreover, different types of crops showed different capacities for cadmium enrichment and can be ranked accordingly: leaf vegetables > root vegetables > solanaceous vegetables > fruits. The single factor pollution index and the potential ecological risk assessment revealed severe Cd contamination in the study area, with a high potential ecological risk. Cadmium exposure posed a higher health risk for children than for adults. However, the single heavy metal cadmium pollution index does not indicate a threat to local residents at this time. Moran's I index and kriging interpolation results revealed that Cd has significant spatial autocorrelation, with high values mainly concentrating around the e-waste dismantling area, indicating a significant correlation with e-waste dismantling activities.
Keywords: E-waste dismantling activities; cadmium contamination; human health risk; potential ecological risk; soil-crop systems; spatial distribution.