The association between heavy metal soil pollution and stomach cancer: a case study in Hangzhou City, China

Abstract

Stomach cancer (SC) is a severe health burden, with nearly half of the world's cases found in China. Noticeably, the emissions of heavy metals into the environment have increased alongside rapid urbanization and industrialization in China. However, as regards carcinogenic associations, the relationship between heavy metals and SC is yet unclear. Based on 9378 newly diagnosed SC cases in Hangzhou City from 2009 to 2012, this work is concerned with the quantitative characterization of the spatial distribution pattern of SC incidence and its geographical association with soil heavy metals by means of a novel geographical model. The results show that (a) Cd is one of the severe soil pollutants in Hangzhou; (b) higher SC incidence clusters are in central Hangzhou, whereas lower clusters are found in the northeast and southwest with a male to female incidence ratio about 2.2:1; (c) although when considered separately, the heavy metals in this work do not have a considerable impact on the distribution of SC incidence in Hangzhou City, nevertheless, the joint effects of multiple heavy metals have significant impacts on SC risk. The present work calls for a rigorous quantitative assessment of the integrated heavy metal soil pollution and its effects on SC incidence.

Spatial distribution and risk assessment of toxic metals in agricultural soils from endemic nasopharyngeal carcinoma region in South China

“…The average soil background Fe 2 O 3 and Al 2 O 3 contents in Guangdong are 3.46% and 13.62%, respectively. Based on their EF values, the toxic metals of the soils were classified into six categories, i.e., no enrichment (0-1), minimal enrichment (1-2), moderate enrichment (2-5), significant enrichment (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), very high enrichment (20-40), and extremely high enrichment (>40) [31].…”

“…The toxic metals are thought be linked to the high gastrointestinal cancer incidence in Van province of Turkey [10]. The joint effects of Cr-Cd, Cr-As, Cd-As, and Cr-Pb have significant impact on the distribution of stomach cancer in Hangzhou, China [11]. Sb and Sr contents in soil are much higher in area with high esophageal cancer in Golestan province, Iran [12].…”

Analysis of Heavy Metal Sources in the Soil of Riverbanks Across an Urbanization Gradient

“…The GeoDetector model provided information about the interaction force of each factor by comparing the sum of the influence of a new feature generated by the superposition of the two factors with the influence of the original factors. This provided comprehensive information for the formulation of subsequent emission reduction strategies [ 41 , 42 ].…”

Major Environmental Issues and Problems

“…Toxic metal concentrations in the soil reduce the soil fertility and increase input to food chain, which causes bioaccumulation and ultimately becomes a threat to human health (Krishna and Govil 2007). Numerous studies have showed that heavy metal accumulation in soil is associated with stomach cancer (Fei et al 2018) and various other diseases.…”