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Human health risk assessment of heavy metals in a replaced urban industrial area of Qingdao, China

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Abstract

The aim of this study was risk characterization of a replaced urban industrial land located north of Qingdao, in relation to heavy metals values. Soil concentrations of Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Zn were analyzed. It was observed that the components of Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Zn are about 2.22, 8.07, 4.70, 6.81, 2.65, and 3.0-folds, respectively, when compared with the local natural background values in Qingdao. The spatial distribution of heavy metals indicated that these hotspots for Cr and Zn located in the southwestern part, Ni and Cd in the middle of the south area, Pb in the northwest, and Cu in the middle of the east area. The values of pollution index and Nemerow integrated pollution index revealed that 100 % of soil samples were moderately or heavily contaminated by six heavy metals. From these results, human health risk assessment for sensitive population was performed according to two different land uses. For non-carcinogenic risk, the direct oral ingestion appeared to be the main exposure pathway followed by dermal and inhalation absorption. The HI values of Pb and Cr characterized for children were larger than 1, while HI values of each metal for adults in two scenarios were lower than 1. Besides, carcinogenic risk from inhalation exposure to Cr for children and adults in two scenarios all exceeded the safety limit.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks are given to Lanfang Mao for his great help in improving the English of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Zhongshuo Xu & Xiaoli Chai

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong, China

    Jinjun Li

  3. College of Fishery, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhejiang, China

    Yuying Pan

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  1. Zhongshuo Xu
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  2. Jinjun Li
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  3. Yuying Pan
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  4. Xiaoli Chai
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Correspondence to Xiaoli Chai.

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Xu, Z., Li, J., Pan, Y. et al. Human health risk assessment of heavy metals in a replaced urban industrial area of Qingdao, China. Environ Monit Assess 188, 229 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5224-4

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