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Source apportionment and assessment of risk to human health of soil heavy metals: a high-density sampling survey in the Dan River Basin, Shandong Province, China

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The rapid development of industry, mining, and agriculture in recent years has led to heavy metal enrichment in the soil in the Dan River Basin, which has greatly threatened the land quality in this area. However, little is known regarding the sources and risks of soil heavy metal pollution in the Dan River Basin.

Materials and methods

This study conducted high-density soil sampling in the Dan River Basin. The sources and potential risks of soil heavy metals to human health were investigated through the use of fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE), index evaluation, spatial analysis, the absolute principal component scores multiple linear regression (APCS-MLR) model, and the health risk assessment model.

Results and discussion

The variation coefficients of heavy metals are relatively high. The monitoring results indicated the study area to be slightly to moderately polluted, with contamination concentrated in the south and parts of the east and west. It needs to bring a high attention to Ni and Cr pollution caused by excessive content and Cd pollution caused by its high toxicity. Soil heavy metals posed a low level of comprehensive ecological risk. The sources of soil heavy metals could be placed into two categories: (1) Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, and Cd mainly originated from industry and agriculture; (2) Pb and Hg could be attributed to transportation and mining. Ingestion represented the main route that topsoil heavy metals enter the body. While the risk of ingestion was high for both adults and children, the latter were at higher risk. Risks to adults and non-carcinogenic risks to children were negligible, whereas the carcinogenic risks posed by heavy metals to children are higher.

Conclusions

The concentration of heavy metals in soil in the study area was influenced by anthropogenic activities. Heavy metal pollution could be mainly attributed to Ni and Cr. Cd posed a moderate to considerable ecological risk in most areas. More attention is needed on the carcinogenic risk to children by Cr produced through manufacturing. This study provides information for regional soil pollution source apportionment and can guide efforts to mitigate pollution and protect human health.

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Acknowledgements

In addition, we would like to express our sincere thanks to all the reviewers who participated in the review and MJEditor (www.mjeditor.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Geological Exploration and Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (202005) and the general projects of the Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation (ZR2020MD109).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Earth Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qianwangang Road 579, Qingdao Economic & Technical Development Zone, Qingdao, 266590, Shandong Province, China

    Yuqi Zhang, Zongjun Gao, Jiutan Liu, Min Wang & Jianguo Feng

  2. The Fourth Geological Brigade of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Weifang, 261021, China

    Bing Jiang

  3. Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Geological Environment Protection of Shandong Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development Bureau, Weifang, 261021, China

    Bing Jiang

  4. Shandong Institute of Geological Sciences, Jinan, 250013, China

    Zhenguo Ning

  5. Shandong Geological Survey Institute, Jinan, 250014, China

    Jierui Dai

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  1. Yuqi Zhang
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  2. Bing Jiang
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  3. Zongjun Gao
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  4. Jiutan Liu
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  7. Min Wang
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  8. Jianguo Feng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zongjun Gao.

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Zhang, Y., Jiang, B., Gao, Z. et al. Source apportionment and assessment of risk to human health of soil heavy metals: a high-density sampling survey in the Dan River Basin, Shandong Province, China. J Soils Sediments 23, 2444–2456 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03472-4

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