Assessment of residents’ total environmental exposure to heavy metals in China

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution in the air, water, and soil has attracted substantial interest recently; however, assessment of the total human environmental exposure remains limited. Therefore, determining the total human environmental exposure is imperative for the management and control of heavy metal pollution. This study assessed the total environmental exposure levels of heavy metals as well as the exposure contributions of air, water, and soil, focusing on Hg, Cd, As, Pb, and Cr. Data from 3,855 volunteers from the cities of Taiyuan, Dalian, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Lanzhou allowed for comparison of the exposures in urban and rural areas. The levels of total human environmental exposure of Hg, Cd, As, Pb, and Cr were 1.82 × 10−6 mg/(kg·d), 1.58 × 10−6 mg/(kg·d), 3.87 × 10−5 mg/(kg·d), 1.79 × 10−5 and 7.47 × 10−5 mg/(kg·d), respectively. There were regional, urban-rural, sex, and age differences in the levels of heavy metal exposure. Water pollution was determined to be the largest contributor to heavy metal exposure, accounting for 97.87%, 92.50%, 80.51%, 76.16% and 79.46% of the Hg, Cd, As, Pb, and Cr, followed by air and soil pollution. These results can provide data to inform environmental protection policies and identify the priority pollutants that can help identify and prevent health risks due to overexposure to these heavy metal pollutants.

Health risk assessment of heavy metal pollution in a soil-rice system: a case study in the Jin-Qu Basin of China

“…The value of Cd for rice grains (0.250) was much higher than other test metals (Supplementary Fig. S2 ), which is consistent with the previous reports 38 , 39 . This finding indicated the occurrence of relatively high levels of some metals in paddy soils, such as Cr and Pb, did not necessarily result in excessive accumulation of the metals in rice grains.…”

Filler-Modified Castor Oil-Based Polyurethane Foam for the Removal of Aqueous Heavy Metals Detected Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Technique

“…Polymeric materials have been proposed for the removal of toxic heavy metal from environmental waste [1]. Heavy metal pollution is the release of toxic metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, etc.…”

“…into the environment. Major sources of these heavy metals are petroleum products, industrial waste, and soil leaching [1]. The ubiquity of heavy metal pollutants in the aqueous environment is caused by their release from the industrial wastewater.…”

Understand COVID-19 through Heavy Metals Pollution

“…Zhao, X et al [18] evaluated heavy metal pollution in China and found that water pollution was the largest at 97.87%, 92.50%, 80.51%, 76.16% and 79.46%. Metal pollution, followed by air and soil pollution.…”