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Public health risk of toxic metal(loid) pollution to the population living near an abandoned small-scale polymetallic mine
- Source :
- The Science of the total environment. 718
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Small-scale mining activities in many developing countries have caused severe environmental issues to the surrounding areas, which ultimately threatened the health of local populations. Based on detailed characterization of the local drinking water and surface soil, as well as foodstuffs, this study comprehensively assessed the public health risk of toxic metal(loid)s to the population living in three villages surrounding an abandoned small-scale polymetallic mine in southern China. The agricultural soils contained elevated levels of Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb, which originated from the mining district, and as expected, the locally cultivated rice and vegetables were contaminated by As, Cd, and Pb to varying extents. Arsenic occurred in both inorganic and organic forms in the rice and vegetables, with inorganic As (i-As) accounting for 82.2% (45.4–100%) and 94.7% (65.2–100%) of the total As contents in rice and vegetables, respectively. Results of health risk assessment indicate that the residents in the impacted villages had serious non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk. Dietary exposure to i-As and Cd through rice and vegetable consumption was the primary cause of non-carcinogenic risk, while i-As intake was the dominant contributor of carcinogenic risk. These findings suggest that significant environmental pollution by toxic metal(loid)s could result from small-scale metal mines, even after being abandoned, and the accumulation of the toxic metal(loid)s in food crops could pose significant health risk to the local residents. Immediate actions should be taken to discourage them from consuming the locally produced food crops, while long-term control measures for containment of toxic metal(loid) pollution are being developed, and high priority should be given to the remediation of Cd and As in the contaminated soils.
- Subjects :
- Pollution
medicine.medical_specialty
China
Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Environmental remediation
media_common.quotation_subject
Population
Environmental pollution
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Risk Assessment
Toxicology
Soil
Metals, Heavy
medicine
Environmental Chemistry
Soil Pollutants
education
Waste Management and Disposal
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
media_common
education.field_of_study
Health risk assessment
business.industry
Public health
Agriculture
Threatened species
Environmental science
Public Health
business
Environmental Pollution
Environmental Monitoring
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18791026
- Volume :
- 718
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Science of the total environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ddba9d8c5a9b09ff18ca6b98abeed0ee