Abstract
In the present study, the concentration and accumulation abilities of five heavy metals (Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Cr) in rice were assessed and their human health risk to local citizens had been evaluated. Soil and rice samples (125 samples) were collected from Guiyang (GY), Qiannan (QN), Bijie (BJ), Tongren (TR), and Zunyi (ZY) in Guizhou Province. Heavy metals were measured by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after microwave digestion. The mean concentrations of Cd, Hg, As, Pb, and Cr were 0.58, 0.65, 12.31, 38.70, and 87.30 mg/kg in soil and were 0.05, 0.005, 0.11, 0.07, and 0.34 mg/kg in rice, respectively. The bioconcentration factors (BCF) decreased with the order Cd > Hg > As > Cr > Pb. Non-carcinogenic risk in this study was evaluated using the method of the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI). The mean HQ values for Cd, Hg, Pb, and Cr were all lower than the standard limit (1.0) for children and adults, except As with the mean HQ for children of 2.79. The mean HI values for children and adults were 4.22 and 1.42, which exceeded 1.0. The mean carcinogenic risk (CR) values of As and Pb for children and adults were higher than the upper limit of the acceptable range (1 × 10−4) established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). In a conclusion, the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks induced by heavy metals for children were higher than that for adults. This study revealed that consumption of rice in study areas may pose potential non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to humans, and As was the largest contributor.
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This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (number 42167054, 31960507) and the Engineering Research Center of Higher Education Institutions in Guizhou Province (KY2020014).
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Dashuan Li carried out all experiments, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. Dr. Qinghai Zhang conceived the idea, supervised the whole experiments, and revised the manuscript; Dr. Dali Sun revised and proofread the final manuscript. Chaolian Yang and Guofei Luo performed material preparation, data collection, and analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Li, D., Zhang, Q., Sun, D. et al. Accumulation and risk assessment of heavy metals in rice: a case study for five areas of Guizhou Province, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 84113–84124 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21739-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21739-0