Assessment of the Health Effects of Heavy Metals Pollution of Agricultural Soils in the Iron Ore Mining Area of the Northern Piedmont of Mount Wutai, Shanxi Province, China

Abstract

We have measured the concentrations of toxic elements (Cd, Pb, As, and Hg) in 29 samples from agricultural soils in an iron ore mining area in the northern piedmont of Mount Wutai in Shanxi Province, China. The aim was to evaluate the potential health risks to local inhabitants based on the health risk assessment model derived from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The results show that the concentrations of the four heavy metals exceed their background values, especially in the case of Hg. The pollution level of the four heavy metals can be ordered as follows: Hg > Cd > Pb > As. The spatial distribution of the concentrations of the four heavy metals was uneven: pollution levels were lowest in the basin of the E River, and centered on the E River there was an increasing trend towards the Yukou River in the west and the Yangyan River in the east. In terms of the degree of pollution, this trend can be summarized as: Qingyang River > Yangyan River > Yukou River > E River. The main form of ingestion of the metals was via mouth and nose, and the risk to children is higher than for adults. Iron ore mining was the main cause of the increased concentrations of As and Cd, which represent a cancer risk for humans.

The impact of forest plant communities on the content of heavy metals in soil profiles of the iron ore mining area, Kryvyi Rih District, Ukraine

“…The natural content of metals in soils is influenced both by parent rock composition and by pedogenetic processes, which may cause the long-term accumulation and leaching of these elements in profile (Sparks 2002, Sposito 2008. Notably, a large number of scholars have indicated an enrichment of metals only in surface soil (Gryshko 2012, Wang et al 2020, Stofejova et al 2021. However, in our study, a different pattern of HMs distribution in the soil profile at Kryvyi Rih natural local background area was revealed (Savosko 2016).…”

“…Heavy metals (HMs) are non-degradable and persistent components, therefore their presence in soil is very stable and very long-lasting (Demkova et al 2017, Savosko et al 2021b, Stofejova et al 2021. Accumulation of HMs in soils have presented many problems for agricultural industry, food chains, biosphere functions and human health (Gryshko et al 2012, Savosko 2016, Baghaie and Aghili 2019, Wang et al 2020. The HMs in the soil are derived from the parent material and various anthropogenic sources, such as agriculture, urbanization and industrialization including mining (Demkova et al 2017, Yi and Cheng 2019, Wang et al 2020, Savosko et al 2021a.…”

“…Modern mining activities are particularly recognized as important sources of HMs pollution due to the presence of high levels of metals in dust emissions (Demkova et al 2017, Wang et al 2020, Stofejova et al 2021. All mining operations can emit huge amounts of airborne particles, usually as fugitive dust.…”

“…In most cases, the quality of soil polluted by HMs can be evaluated by several criteria such as absolute concentrations of HMs as a result of chemical tests, data of ecotoxicological tests or the use of bioindicators, as well as statistical methods (Loska at al. 2004, Baghaie et al 2019, Wang et al 2020). However, these methods do not provide a comprehensive information on the degree of soil contamination.…”

Environmental Risk Evaluation and Source Identification of Heavy Metal(loid)s in Agricultural Soil of Shangdan Valley, Northwest China

“…Some heavy metal(loid)s, e.g., As, Cd, Hg, and Pb, will lead to hazardous health problems such as renal insufficiency, liver injury, skin cancer, and painful osteoporosis [15][16][17], while other heavy metal(loid)s, such as Cu, Mn, Zn, etc., are necessary for the healthy growth of plants or animals but beyond a certain amount will also produce toxicity to organisms [18,19]. In recent decades, the accumulation of soil heavy metal(loid)s and the assessment on their ecological-health risk has become a widespread problem and drawn significant research attention worldwide [20][21][22][23][24]. A lot of research has been carried out on spatial distribution [25,26], migration process [27,28], source analysis [23,29,30], ecological risk assessment [20,22,31], and remediation [32,33] of heavy metal(loid)s in the soil.…”