Fluoride and Metals in the Agricultural Soils of Mica Mining Areas of Jharkhand, India: Assessing the Ecological and Human Health Risk

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concentration of metals and fluoride in the agricultural soils of the mica mining areas of Jharkhand was estimated for human health risk assessment and source apportionment studies. The elemental concentrations of As, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn in the study area exceeded the world average values. The sources of the metals and fluoride in soil were suggested to be from both natural and human-induced activities as per principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). The sources of Al, Fe, Mn and F in the soil were ascribed to the mica mining–related activities as indicated by PCA and CA. Potential ecological risk assessment suggested moderate risk with respect to Cd, Cu and Pb at few locations. Considering metals and fluoride content of the soils, non-cancer risk assessment suggested considerable risk to the child population which was largely due to Al and Fe. Taking into account all the pathways and elements, the HIs for the study area were calculated to be 0.586 and 3.58 for the adult and child residents, respectively. The carcinogenic risk assessment evaluated the cancer risk to be within the target risk of 1 × 10−4, suggesting insignificant cancer risk to the residents.