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Spatial health risk assessment and hierarchical risk management for mercury in soils from a typical contaminated site, China

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Abstract

Due to rapid urbanization and the implementation of ecological civilization construction in China, many industrial factories have been closed or relocated. Therefore, numbers of contaminated sites were generated with contaminated soils which may pose a risk to receptors living nearby. This study presented a spatial health risk assessment and hierarchical risk management policy making for mercury (Hg) in soils from a typical contaminated site in the Hunan Province, central China. Compared with the second class value (0.3 mg/kg) of the Chinese Environmental Quality Standard for Soils, the mean concentrations of Hg in the three soil depths exceeded the second class value. The non-carcinogenic risk of Hg probably posed adverse health effects in 41, 30 and 36 % of the surface soil, the moderate soil and subsoil, respectively, under a sensitive land scenario. The non-carcinogenic risk temporarily posed no adverse health effects in most areas under an insensitive land scenario except for the area around sampling site S29. Spatially, the central, southwest and northeast parts of the contaminated land under a sensitive land scenario should be regarded as the priority regions. For non-carcinogenic effects, the exposure pathways that resulted in the higher levels of exposure risk were ingestion and inhalation of vapors, followed by dermal contact and inhalation of particles. A risk-based integrated risk management policy including the hierarchical risk control values for different soil depths and the calculated remediation earthwork was proposed with consideration of the cost-benefit effect for the related decision-makers.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51039001, 51308076, 51521006 and 51378190).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Environment and Health, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, 430073, China

    Fei Li, Fei Li, Jingdong Zhang, Wei Jiang, Chaoyang Liu & Chengde Zhang

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Guangming Zeng

  3. Environmental and Resources Law Institute, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, 430073, China

    Zhongmin Zhang

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  1. Fei Li
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  2. Jingdong Zhang
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Correspondence to Fei Li.

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Li, F., Zhang, J., Jiang, W. et al. Spatial health risk assessment and hierarchical risk management for mercury in soils from a typical contaminated site, China. Environ Geochem Health 39, 923–934 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-016-9864-7

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