Heavy metals in the soil of industrial areas pose severe health risks to humans after land-use properties are transformed into residential land. The public exposure time and frequency will soar significantly under residential land. However, much uncertainty still exists about the relationship between soil heavy metal pollution and—human health risks in an old industrial zone in Shanghai, China. Principal component analysis—(PCA) was used to explore the main sources of these heavy metals. Kriging interpolation was u-sed to identify their spatial distribution and high-risk areas, and the Human Health risk model was used to measure health risk. The results illustrate that the pollution levels of Cd, Hg, and Pb in industrial land are more serious than those in irrigation cropland. Meanwhile, the results of PCA showed that there were two main pollution sources under irrigated cropland, a natural source and a traffic source, accounting for 44.1% and 31.0%, respectively, and there were three main pollution sources under industrial land, with natural sources accounting for 28.5%, traffic sources accounting for 25.7%, and industrial sources accounting for 13.1%. In addition, the health risk assessment results indicated that the priority control pollutants of non-carcinogenic risk and carcinogenic risk were Zn and Cr, respectively. The high-risk area was mainly located in the middle of the study area. These results indicate that eliminating heavy metal pollution in the soil of the industrial area is so important to decrease health risks. The results of this study provide theoretical contributions to early warning of health risks related to heavy metal pollution in industrial area soil and serve as a practical reference for speeding up the formulation of industrial land pollution management policies.

Industrial activities have raised widespread concerns about groundwater pollution and human health. Shanghai’s industrial land has been polluting the groundwater for more than 30 years; however, it is not clear whether it poses a risk to human health. This study explores the health risk degree in different groups of groundwater in old industrial areas in Shanghai, China. We selected eight heavy metal elements (As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Hg, Pb, Cu, and Zn) as the research objects and analyzed the characteristics of concentrations and spatial distribution using single factor index and geostatistical analytical methods. Results indicated that the average concentrations of As and Hg were higher than the environmental standards. Meanwhile, As, Ni, Hg and Pb in groundwater were notable anthropogenic inputs. Compared with irrigation cropland, the pollution of Ni, Pb and As in industrial land was obviously more serious. In addition, the health risk assessment results indicated the priority control pollutants of non-carcinogenic risk and carcinogenic risk are As and Cr, respectively. Our results showed that human activities have deeply increased heavy metal concentrations in groundwater, which in turn poses risks to human health. These findings provide scientific support for urban managers to reduce residents’ drinking water risks.