Abstract
Vegetable contamination in mining and smelting areas has resulted in high dietary intakes of heavy metals, which pose potential health risks to local residents. In this study, paired soil-vegetable samples were collected around Pb/Zn smelters in Southwest China. Probabilistic risks to local residents via vegetable consumption were evaluated with a Monte Carlo simulation. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in the soils were 116.76, 3.59, 158.56, 196.96, and 236.74 mg/kg, respectively. About 38.18%, 58.49%, and 52.83% of the vegetable samples exceeded the maximum allowable concentrations for As, Cd, and Pb, respectively. The daily dietary intake of As, Cd, and Pb exceeded the provisional tolerable daily intakes for local residents, with children showing the highest intake via vegetable consumption. The percentages of the target hazard quotients of As, Cd, and Pb for local residents exceeding the safe value of one were about 95%, 50%, and 25%, respectively. The 95th percentiles of the hazard index for children, adolescents, and adults were 15.71, 11.15, and 9.34, respectively, indicating significant risks to local residents, especially children. These results highlight a need to develop effective strategies to reduce heavy metal contamination and exposure to protect human health.
Highlights
Concern about soil contamination with heavy metals around the world has increased in recent decades because of dramatic social and economic development [1,2]
The average bioaccumulation factors (BCFs) of heavy metals in the vegetables decreased in the order of Cd (0.055), Zn (0.024), Cu (0.018), As (0.007), and Pb (0.002). These results show that Cd is transferred from soil to the edible parts of vegetables, which agrees with the results from other studies [11,31]
Cd estimated daily intake (EDI) were much higher than the results studied by Li et al [24], who found that the EDIs of Cd via vegetable consumption were 1.46 and 1.25 μg/kd·d for adults and children, respectively, around a
Summary
Concern about soil contamination with heavy metals around the world has increased in recent decades because of dramatic social and economic development [1,2]. Various anthropogenic activities, such as mining and smelting [3,4], electrical waste dismantling [5], and agricultural practices [6], discharge heavy metals into the environment, resulting in elevated heavy metal concentrations in soils. According to the National Soil Pollution Survey Bulletin, 19.4% of farmland sampling sites in China are contaminated with heavy metals [7]. Vegetable contamination with heavy metals around industrial areas has been found in China [10,11,12], Sweden [13], France [14], and Germany [15]
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