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Atrazine contamination in agricultural soils from the Yangtze River Delta of China and associated health risks

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Abstract

Atrazine is one of the most widely applied and persistent herbicides in the world. In view of limited information on the regional contamination of atrazine in soils in China, this study investigated the spatial distribution and environmental impacts of atrazine in agricultural soils collected from the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) as an illustrative analysis of rapidly developing regions in the country. The results showed that the concentrations of atrazine in the YRD agricultural soils ranged from <1.0 to 113 ng/g dry weight, with a mean of 5.7 ng/g, and a detection rate of 57.7 % in soils. Pesticide factory might be a major source for the elevated levels of atrazine in Zhejiang Province. The contamination of atrazine was closely associated with land use types. The concentrations and detection rates of atrazine were higher in corn fields and mulberry fields than in rice paddy fields. There was no significant difference in compositions of soil microbial phospholipids fatty acids among the areas with different atrazine levels. Positive relationship (R = 0.417, p < 0.05, n = 30) was observed between atrazine and total microbial biomass. However, other factors, such as soil type and land management practice, might have stronger influences on soil microbial communities. Human health risks via exposure to atrazine in soils were estimated according to the methods recommended by the US EPA. Atrazine by itself in all the soil samples imposed very low carcinogenic risks (<10−6) and minimal non-cancer risks (hazard index <1) to adults and children.

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Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2014CB441101), the National Natural Science Foundations of China (21137003), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2016FZA6007). The authors would like to thank Ms. Zi Wei from the Analysis and Measurement Center of Zhejiang University for assistance in sample analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China

    J. T. Sun, L. L. Pan, Yu Zhan & L. Z. Zhu

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    J. T. Sun, Daniel C. W. Tsang & X. D. Li

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  1. J. T. Sun
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  2. L. L. Pan
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Correspondence to L. Z. Zhu or X. D. Li.

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Sun, J.T., Pan, L.L., Zhan, Y. et al. Atrazine contamination in agricultural soils from the Yangtze River Delta of China and associated health risks. Environ Geochem Health 39, 369–378 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-016-9853-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-016-9853-x

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