Heavy metals distribution characteristics, source analysis, and risk evaluation of soils around mines, quarries, and other special areas in a region of northwestern Yunnan, China

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Sep 15:458:132050. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132050. Epub 2023 Jul 12.

Abstract

In this study, based on the assessment of soil heavy metals (HMs) pollution using relevant indices, a comprehensive approach combined network environ analysis (NEA), human health risk assessment (HHRA) method and positive definite matrix factor (PMF) model to quantify the risks among ecological communities in a special environment around mining area in northwest Yunnan, calculated the risk to human health caused by HMs in soil, and analyzed the pollution sources of HMs. The integrated risks for soil microorganisms, vegetations, herbivores, and carnivores were 2.336, 0.876, 0.114, and 0.082, respectively, indicating that soil microorganisms were the largest risk receptors. The total hazard indexes (HIT) for males, females, and children were 0.542, 0.591, and 1.970, respectively, revealing a relatively high and non-negligible non-carcinogenic risks (NCR) for children. The total cancer risks (TCR) for both females and children exceeded 1.00E-04, indicating that soil HMs posed carcinogenic risks (CR) to them. Comparatively, Pb was the high-risk metal, accounting for 53.76%, 57.90%, and 68.09% of HIT in males, females, and children, respectively. PMF analysis yielded five sources of pollution, F1 (industry), F2 (agriculture), F3 (domesticity), F4 (nature), and F5 (traffic).

Keywords: Compound anthropogenic activity area; Lead pollution; Network environ analysis; Potential ecological risk.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carcinogens
  • Child
  • China
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Humans
  • Metals, Heavy* / analysis
  • Risk Assessment
  • Soil
  • Soil Pollutants* / analysis

Substances

  • Soil
  • Soil Pollutants
  • Metals, Heavy
  • Carcinogens