Concentration, Source, and Health Risk Assessment of PM1 Heavy Metals in Typical Pollution Processes in Zhengzhou

Abstract

Heavy metal elements in particulate matter can cause adverse effects on human health, and the smaller the particle size, the greater the harm. A total of 16 heavy metal elements (Al, Si, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Ba, Pb, and Cd) in PM1 were continuously determined by an online heavy metal observation instrument in Zhengzhou city from January 7 to 25, 2021. The results showed that ρ(K) concentration was the highest during the observation period (0.62 μg·m-3). According to pollutant concentration and meteorological characteristics, the observation period was divided into clean days, dust days, and haze days. The contribution of heavy metal pollution characteristics and health risk assessment in atmospheric PM1 was different under different pollution processes. The US EPA health risk assessment method was used to assess the health risks of heavy metals, and the enrichment factor method and positive matrix factorization (PMF) were used to analyze the sources of heavy metals. The influence of the transmission was evaluated by using the concentration-weighted trajectory (CWT) method and the backward trajectory method. The results show that the enrichment factors of Zn, As, Se, Pb, and Cd were more than 100 under different pollution processes, which were greatly affected by human activities. During the sampling period, the main sources of heavy metals were industrial sources, coal/biomass sources, motor vehicle sources, and dust sources. The results of the health risk assessment were substituted into PMF analysis, and it was found that industrial sources were the main contributing sources of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks during cleaning days, dust days, and haze days, and the carcinogenic risk of heavy metal elements in PM1 in this region for adults exceeded that for children. CWT and backward trajectory methods revealed that regional transmission was one of the main factors affecting local health risks.