Research on health risk assessment of heavy metals in soil based on multi-factor source apportionment: A case study in Guangdong Province, China

Environmental problems caused by heavy metal pollution in soil have attracted widespread attention worldwide. Identifying and quantifying the heavy metal pollution sources and risks is crucial for subsequent soil management. In this study, an integrated source-risk method for source apportionment and risk assessment based on the PMF model, the geodetector model and the health risk assessment model (HRA) was proposed and applied. Analysis of Hg, As, Pb, Cd, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Zn in 208 topsoils showed that the average contents of eight heavy metals were 1.87-5.86 times greater than corresponding background values, among which Cd and As were relatively high, which were higher than the specified soil risk screening values, high-value areas of heavy metals are mainly concentrated in the central part of the study area. The source apportionment showed that the accumulation of heavy metals was affected by five sources: atmospheric deposition (16.3 %), natural sources (33.1 %), industrial activities dominated by metal mining (15.1 %), industrial activities dominated by metal smelting (12.6 %) and traffic sources (22.9 %). The results of the health risk assessment showed that the carcinogenic risks (adult: 4.74E-05, children: 7.41E-05) of heavy metals in soil to the study population were both acceptable, the non-carcinogenic risk of adult (THI = 0.277) was within the limit, while the non-carcinogenic risk of children (THI = 1.70) was higher than the limit value. Ingestion (89.5 %-95.9 %) contributed the greatest health risk among all exposure routes. Source 3 (arsenic-related industrial activities dominated by metal mining) contributed the most to the HI and CRI of adults and children (all above 50 %), therefore, in the formulation stage of soil management strategy in this area, priority should be given to the control and management of this pollution source. These results can provide more detailed support for environmental protection departments to propose targeted soil pollution control measures.

Automated summary

Environmental problems caused by heavy metal pollution in soil have attracted widespread attention worldwide. An integrated source-risk method was proposed and applied to identify and quantify heavy metal pollution sources and risks. The results showed that heavy metal accumulation in the soil was affected by atmospheric deposition, natural sources, industrial activities dominated by metal mining, industrial activities dominated by metal smelting, and traffic sources. The health risk assessment indicated acceptable carcinogenic risks for the study population, but non-carcinogenic risks were higher than the limit value for children. Ingestion was identified as the main exposure route contributing to the greatest health risk. Priority should be given to the control and management of pollution sources related to metal mining in formulating soil management strategies.