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Accumulation of heavy metal in scalp hair of people exposed in Beijing sewage discharge channel sewage irrigation area in Tianjin, China

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Abstract

Heavy metal concentrations in soil, wheat, and scalp hair exposed to Beijing sewage discharge channel sewage irrigation area (BSIA) in Tianjin were studied to evaluate the influence of sewage irrigation. Results showed that the continuous application of wastewater has led to an accumulation of heavy metals in the soil, with 55.2 and 8.62% of soil samples accumulating Cd and Zn, respectively, at concentrations exceeding the permissible limits in China. Concentrations of heavy metals in wheat grain from BSIA were higher than these from the clean water irrigation area by 63.2% for Cd, 3.8% for Cu, 100% for Pb, 6.6% for Zn, and 326.7% for Cr. The heavy metal bioaccumulation factor (BAF) of wheat/soil in BSIA showed the following order: Zn > Cd > Cu > Pb > Cr. Interestingly, these accumulation of heavy metals in soil after sewage irrigation could increase the migration ability of heavy metals (particularly Zn and Cd) from soil to wheat. Mean concentrations of heavy metals in the hair of residents followed the decreasing trend of Zn > Cu > Pb > Cr > Cd, which were higher than the control area by 110.0% for Cd, 20.0% for Cu, 55.9% for Zn, 36.6% for Pb, and 64.6% for Cr. Concentrations of heavy metals in male human hair in BSIA were higher than those of females. And the concentrations of heavy metals except for Pb in human hair increased with their increasing ages. The heavy metal BAF values of wheat/soil in BSIA showed the trend of Zn (98.0057) > Pb (7.0162) > Cr (5.5788) > Cu (5.4853) > Cd (3.5584); heavy metals had obvious biological amplification from wheat to human hair. These results indicated that local population health was potentially exposed to the heavy metal risk via wheat consumption.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 40973078; 41401582) and the strategic priority research program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB14020204). We thank reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environment Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of water resource and water environment, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Zuwei Wang, Mingshuo Geng, Zilu Wang & Qianqian Wang

  2. Land and Environment College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Xiaoman Yu

  3. Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Xiangfeng Zeng

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  1. Zuwei Wang
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  2. Xiaoman Yu
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Correspondence to Xiangfeng Zeng.

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Wang, Z., Yu, X., Geng, M. et al. Accumulation of heavy metal in scalp hair of people exposed in Beijing sewage discharge channel sewage irrigation area in Tianjin, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 13741–13748 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8884-x

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