Contamination and source-specific health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil from a mega iron and steel site in China

Haixu Sun; Xiaoyang Jia; Zhiyuan Wu; Peiyao Yu; Lina Zhang; Shijie Wang; Tianxiang Xia

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122851

Contamination and source-specific health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil from a mega iron and steel site in China

Environ Pollut. 2024 Jan 1;340(Pt 2):122851. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122851. Epub 2023 Oct 31.

Authors

Haixu Sun¹, Xiaoyang Jia¹, Zhiyuan Wu², Peiyao Yu³, Lina Zhang², Shijie Wang², Tianxiang Xia⁴

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory for Risk Modeling and Remediation of Contaminated Sites, Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Eco-Environmental Protection, Beijing, 100037, China; College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory for Risk Modeling and Remediation of Contaminated Sites, Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Eco-Environmental Protection, Beijing, 100037, China.
³ Beijing Shougang Construction Investment Company Limited, Beijing, 100043, China.
⁴ Beijing Key Laboratory for Risk Modeling and Remediation of Contaminated Sites, Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Eco-Environmental Protection, Beijing, 100037, China. Electronic address: xiatianxiang@cee.cn.

PMID: 37918775
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122851

Abstract

The iron and steel industry has always been a key and difficult point of environmental pollution control. In the present study, 493, 175, 153, 72, and 42 soil samples were collected from the soil depths of 0-0.5, 0.5-2, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5 m (herein called the layers) of the Shougang Steel site, respectively. Compared with the evaluation criteria, the Shougang Steel surface soil was severely polluted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Inverse distance-weighted interpolation and the Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed that the soil PAH pollution in the iron-making area, especially the coking area, was severer than those in other areas. The PAH concentrations first decreased, and then, increased with the increase of depth. With the increase in depth, the contributions of 2- and 3-ring PAHs increased, while those of 4-, 5-, and 6-ring PAHs decreased. The bivariate local indicators of spatial association (LISA) analysis was used to identify the areas prone to soil PAH pollution due to atmospheric deposition of industrial waste gas and traffic emissions. The method could be used to analyze the impact of anthropogenic activities on soil's PAH pollution for other contaminated sites. Three main pollution sources of soil PAHs, the backfill source, the combustion of coal, and the traffic emissions, were identified based upon three diagnostic ratios, positive matrix factorization and the bivariate LISA analysis, and accounted for 53.8%, 23.5%, and 22.7%, respectively. The combination of bivariate LISA analysis and other source analysis methods could improve the accuracy of source analysis. Benzo[a]pyrene contributed the most to the total health risk among sixteen PAHs. The health risks related to the three pollution sources decreased in the order of backfill sources > coal combustion > traffic emissions. The incremental life-time carcinogenic risks were all below 10^-4, indicating negligible or acceptable risks.

Keywords: Abandoned industrial site soil; ILCR; Pollution risk area; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Source apportionment; Spatial distribution.

MeSH terms

China
Coal
Industrial Waste*
Iron
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons*

Substances

Industrial Waste
Coal
Iron
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons