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. 2019 May 24;16(10):1843.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16101843.

Heavy Metals in Suspended Particulate Matter of the Zhujiang River, Southwest China: Contents, Sources, and Health Risks

Jie Zeng  1 , Guilin Han  2 , Qixin Wu  3 , Yang Tang  4
Affiliations

Heavy Metals in Suspended Particulate Matter of the Zhujiang River, Southwest China: Contents, Sources, and Health Risks

Jie Zeng et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

To investigate the abundance, water/particle interaction behavior, sources, and potential risk of heavy metals in suspended particulate matter (SPM), a total of 22 SPM samples were collected from the Zhujiang River, Southwest China, in July 2014 (wet season). Nine heavy metal(loid)s (V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb) in SPM were detected. The results show that the selected heavy metal(loid)s in SPM appear in the following order: Mn (982.4 mg kg-1) > Zn (186.8 mg kg-1) > V (143.6 mg kg-1) > Cr (129.1 mg kg-1) > As (116.8 mg kg-1) > Cu (44.1 mg kg-1) > Ni (39.9 mg kg-1) > Pb (38.1 mg kg-1) > Cd (3.8 mg kg-1). Furthermore, both the enrichment factor (EF) and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) indicate that SPM is extremely enriched in metal(loid)s of Cd and As, while SPM is slightly enriched, or not enriched, in other heavy metals. According to the toxic risk index (TRI) and hazard index (HI), arsenic accounts for the majority of the SPM toxicity (TRI = 8, 48.3 ± 10.4%) and causes the primary health risk (HI > 1), and the potential risks of V and Cr are also not negligible. By applying a correlation matrix and principal component analysis (PCA), three principal components (PC) were identified and accounted for 79.19% of the total variance. PC 1 (V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, and Pb) is controlled by natural origins. PC 2 (As and Cd) is mainly contributed by anthropogenic origins in the basin. PC 3 (Zn) can be attributed to mixed sources of natural and anthropogenic origins. Moreover, all the partition coefficients (lgKd) exceeded 2.9 (arithmetical mean value order: Mn > Pb > Cd > V ≈ Cu > Cr ≈ Ni), indicating the powerful adsorptive ability of SPM for these heavy metal(loid)s during water/particle interaction.

Keywords: Pearl River; Southwest China; enrichment; health risk; heavy metals; suspended particulate matter.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map showing sampling locations and sample numbers of the Zhujiang River.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Abundances of nine heavy metal(loid)s in SPM normalized to local soil in the Zhujiang River.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Enrichment factors (EF) of SPM in the Zhujiang River; (a) headstream, (b) downstream.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Geo-accumulation index (Igeo) of heavy metal(loid)s of the SPM.
Figure 5
Figure 5
3D plot of scores for heavy metal(loid)s obtained from PCA results of SPM in the Zhujiang River.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The toxic risk index (TRI) of heavy metal(loid)s of SPM in the Zhujiang River.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Hazard index (HI) for each metal(loid) of SPM in the Zhujiang River.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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