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Health risk assessment of metals in food crops and related soils amended with biogas slurry in Taihu Basin: perspective from field experiment

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Abstract

A health risk assessment of food crops contaminated with heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb, As, Cd, and Cr) through the intake of cereals and vegetables grown from biogas slurry irrigated sites was conducted. In the vegetable soils and cereal soils, the concentrations of Zn, Pb, and Cd were far higher than Chinese agricultural standards. The pollution conditions of the aforementioned heavy metals varied with the seasons. Typically, the pollution was more serious in summer than in autumn. Furthermore, the accumulative properties of the heavy metals were different in the cereals and vegetables. In particular, Cu, Zn, and Pb tended to accumulate in rice with concentrations of 6.70, 36.58, and 4.14 mg kg−1, respectively. Pb and Cd in cereals and vegetables exceeded the maximum permissible concentrations in China. The health risk assessment revealed that the daily intake (DI) and target hazard quotients (THQs) of Pb, As, and Cd in cereals and vegetables also exceeded the FAO/WHO limit. The results indicated that heavy metal contamination posed a severe health risk to local humans.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this study was provided by Jiangsu province environmental protection key Project (No. 2013010) and the National Water Pollution Control and Management Technology Major Projects (Grant No. 2012ZX07506-001).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Environmental Science, 241 Fenghuang West Street, Nanjing, 210036, China

    Bo Bian, Hai suo Wu, Lin Lv & Yamin Fan

  2. Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Environmental Engineering, 241 Fenghuang West Street, Nanjing, 210036, China

    Bo Bian & Yamin Fan

  3. School of Earth Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Lin Lv

  4. Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, State Key Laboratory of Hydrology–Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, 223 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Haiming Lu

Authors
  1. Bo Bian
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  2. Hai suo Wu
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  3. Lin Lv
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  4. Yamin Fan
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  5. Haiming Lu
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Correspondence to Bo Bian.

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Responsible editor: Elena Maestri

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Bian, B., suo Wu, H., Lv, L. et al. Health risk assessment of metals in food crops and related soils amended with biogas slurry in Taihu Basin: perspective from field experiment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 14358–14366 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4853-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4853-4

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