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. 2012;7(11):e46793.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046793. Epub 2012 Nov 13.

Human exposure pathways of heavy metals in a lead-zinc mining area, Jiangsu Province, China

Chang-Sheng Qu  1 , Zong-Wei Ma, Jin Yang, Yang Liu, Jun Bi, Lei Huang
Affiliations

Human exposure pathways of heavy metals in a lead-zinc mining area, Jiangsu Province, China

Chang-Sheng Qu et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is becoming a serious issue in developing countries such as China, and the public is increasingly aware of its adverse health impacts in recent years. We assessed the potential health risks in a lead-zinc mining area and attempted to identify the key exposure pathways. We evaluated the spatial distributions of personal exposure using indigenous exposure factors and field monitoring results of water, soil, food, and indoor and outdoor air samples. The risks posed by 10 metals and the contribution of inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact pathways to these risks were estimated. Human hair samples were also analyzed to indicate the exposure level in the human body. Our results show that heavy metal pollution may pose high potential health risks to local residents, especially in the village closest to the mine (V1), mainly due to Pb, Cd and Hg. Correspondingly, the residents in V1 had higher Pb (8.14 mg/kg) levels in hair than those in the other two villages. Most of the estimated risks came from soil, the intake of self-produced vegetables and indoor air inhalation. This study highlights the importance of site-specific multipathway health risk assessments in studying heavy-metal exposures in China.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: One author (JY) is employed by a commercial company, SGS-CSTC Standards Technical Services (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. However, this study was not funded by the SGS company. SGS company is a cooperative partner in this study. The authors have cooperation agreement with SGS company. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Locations of the study areas.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Cumulative probability distribution of the total HQs in the three villages.
The health risks were evaluated by means of a Monte Carlo simulation based on Crystalball software for 10,000 iterations.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Multipathway analysis of HQ (Pb).
Each pathway’s contribution to total Pb exposure of local residents in the three studied villages was calculated based on average HQ values.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Multipathway analysis of HQ (Cd).
Each pathway’s contribution to total Cd exposure of local residents in the three studied villages was calculated based on average HQ values.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Multipathway analysis of HQ (Hg).
Each pathway’s contribution to total Hg exposure of local residents in the three studied villages was calculated based on average HQ values.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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