All the Lead in China

Abstract

Lead contamination in China has been extensively documented by scientists in China and elsewhere over the past two decades, as summarized in this review of articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Sources of that contamination include (a) deposits from previous emissions of leaded gasoline, which was finally eliminated in the past decade; (b) previous and continuing emissions from fossil fuel combustion, which are increasing markedly with the rapid industrialization of China; (c) previous and continuing emissions from other industrial activities, including mining, smelting and municipal waste incineration; and (d) previous and continuing additions of contaminated fertilizers, sewage, and untreated wastewater to agricultural fields. Lead concentrations of some Chinese agricultural produce are also elevated by acid rain and acidic fertilizers, which increase the solubility and bioavailability of both natural and contaminant lead in soil. In addition, some Chinese products are contaminated with lead during their production, processing, packaging, and transport. As a consequence of the long-range transport of industrial lead emissions from China and the global market for its products, the problem of lead pollution in China is a global problem.

A century long sedimentary record of anthropogenic lead (Pb), Pb isotopes and other trace metals in Singapore

“…Chi Minh City and 1.131 ± 0.001 for Jakarta in the 1990s, when leaded petrol was still in use Industrial sources might also contribute large amounts of Pb to the environment (e.g. Flegal et al 2013). Industrial Pb emissions from mining, smelting, waste incineration and coal combustion were found to be significant in many cities (e.g.…”

“…Anthropogenic Pb has been recorded in many environments, including the atmosphere (e.g. : Patterson and Settle 1987;Duce et al 1991;Zhu et al 2002;Flegal et al 2013); terrestrial (e.g. : Boutron et al 1995;Osterberg et al 2008;De Deckker et al 2010;Kylander et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2011); aquatic (e.g.…”

“…In addition, the increasing emissions of Pb from coal combustion and other industrial sources have also received regional attention in Asia as a consequence of the recent economic boom (e.g. : Díaz-Somoano et al 2009;Hang et al 2010;Flegal et al 2013;Zurbrick et al, 2014).…”

Acid rain in Jiangsu province, eastern China: Tempo-spatial variations features and analysis

“…The acid rain makes the soil acidification (Larssen et al, 2000) and forest decline (Bian and Yu, 1992), increase the potential ecological risk in the red soil agricultural ecosystem (Cui et al, 2014a, b), and increase the solubility and bioavailability of both natural and contaminant lead in soil (Flegal et al, 2013). The acid rain also harms people's health, corrodes cultural relics and destroys ecological systems, it has become one of the major environmental problems, which has attracted much attention in the world today (Wang and Xu, 2009;Zhang et al, 2010).…”

Size Distribution of Atmospheric Particulates and Pb Concentrations in TSP During the Cold-Weather Heating Period

“…Among heavy metals, Pb is a non-essential and toxic metal to plants, animals, and humans, and thus it is a kind of heavy metal that poses a risk to ecology and health. In recent years, with rapid industrialization and urbanization, a lot of Pb is put into the atmosphere, which has greatly increased the Pb burden in the environment in China, where Pb pollution has been recognized as a major problem [13,14].…”