ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Health Risk Assessment of Soil Heavy Metals
in the Urban-Rural Area
of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, China
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1
National Engineering Research Center of Coal Mine Water Hazard Controlling, School of Resources
and Civil Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, PR China
2
Key Laboratory of Mine Water Resource Utilization of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, School of Resources
and Civil Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, PR China
3
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Synergetic Control and Joint Remediation for Soil
& Water Pollution, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, PR China
4
School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology,
Xuzhou, 221116, PR China
Submission date: 2024-01-08
Final revision date: 2024-03-04
Acceptance date: 2024-03-27
Online publication date: 2024-06-13
Corresponding author
Weihua Peng
National Engineering Research Center of Coal Mine Water Hazard Controlling, School of Resources
and Civil Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, PR China
Manli Lin
National Engineering Research Center of Coal Mine Water Hazard Controlling, School of Resources
and Civil Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, PR China
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ABSTRACT
To investigate the health risks of typical soil heavy metals to surrounding residents of industrial land
in the urban-rural area of Liuquan Town, Xigu District, Lanzhou City, China. The contents of As, Cd,
Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn were analyzed using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Non-carcinogenic
and carcinogenic risks of the heavy metals to children and adults were evaluated. Results showed higher
soil Hg, Pb, and Zn contents in the study area than the corresponding background values of Gansu
Province. The Hg pollution was the most serious, showing higher contents than the background water
at 56.41% of the soil sampling sites. As, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb showed normal distributions, while Cd, Hg,
and Zn exhibited skewed distributions. Hg and Cd showed the highest coefficients of variation of 0.966
and 0.548, respectively. Health risk evaluation results showed higher total non-carcinogenic risk (HI)
and total carcinogenic risk (TCR) for children than those for adults by 5.411 and 2.156, respectively,
indicating children are more susceptible to non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks. In addition, As,
Cr, and Pb were the main contributors to the non-carcinogenic risk, while As and Cr were the main
contributors to the carcinogenic risk.