Compound health risk assessment of cumulative heavy metal exposure: A case study of a village near a battery factory in Henan Province, China

Overview

Jiang and colleagues measured mercury, arsenic, nickel, lead, cadmium, chromium, copper, and zinc across soil, groundwater, air particulates, locally produced grain, and vegetables in a village near a battery factory in Henan Province, China. For Heavy Metal Index product occurrence, the relevant values are the wheat, corn, and vegetable concentrations reported in Table 4. Mercury and arsenic are total-element results; chromium is reported as total chromium (Cr), not Cr(VI).

Key numbers

Table 4 reports heavy metal concentrations in crop samples in mg/kg:

GB2762-2017 values printed below the crop rows were mercury (Hg) 0.02, arsenic (As) 0.5, lead (Pb) 0.2, cadmium (Cd) 0.1, and Cr 1 mg/kg; nickel (Ni), Cu, and Zn were printed as -.

Table 4 reports vegetable concentrations in mg/kg:

The GB2762-2017 vegetable rows print leaf-vegetable values of Hg 0.001, As 0.5, Pb 0.3, Cd 0.2, and Cr 0.5 mg/kg, and tuber-vegetable values of Hg 0.001, As 0.5, Pb 0.1, Cd 0.1, and Cr 0.5 mg/kg; Ni, Cu, and Zn are printed as -.

Additional source-reported numbers:

• The abstract states that Cd and Pb in wheat, Hg in corn, and Cd, Hg, and Pb in vegetables were higher than corresponding Chinese limits.
• The text reports average vegetable concentrations used for risk calculations as Hg 0.002, As 0.0175, Cd 4.26, Ni 2.29, Cr 0.22, Cu 7.08, Zn 48.79, and Pb 1.01 mg/kg.
• Adult dietary intake assumptions were 246.38 g wheat, 13.51 g corn, and 198.88 g vegetables per day.
• Child dietary intake assumptions were 82.13 g wheat, 4.50 g corn, and 66.29 g vegetables per day.
• Table 9 reports enrichment coefficients (%) for wheat, corn, and vegetables: Cd 11.0/2.7/146.0; Pb 1.3/0.7/4.9; Ni 1.4/1.5/5.43; As 1.4/1.0/4.9; Cr 1.2/0.5/0.3.

Methods (brief)

Samples were collected on December 20, 2018, in SZD village near a battery factory in Xinxiang, Henan Province. Wheat and corn were collected from villagers’ homes, crushed, passed through a 100 mesh nylon screen, and reserved for analysis. Fresh Brassica pekinensis, Brassica chinensis, Raphanus sativus, and Spinacia samples were collected in triplicate, washed with tap water and deionized water, dried at 65 °C, pulverized, and sieved. For Ni, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Zn, grain and vegetable samples were digested with HNO3-HClO4 and measured by ICP-MS; Hg and As were determined after HNO3-H2O2 digestion by atomic fluorescence spectrometry. Detection and quantitation limits were 0.0015 and 0.005 ug/L for Hg, 0.015 and 0.05 ug/L for As, 0.009 and 0.03 ug/L for Ni, 0.009 and 0.03 ug/L for Pb, 0.0005 and 0.0017 ug/L for Cd, 0.008 and 0.027 ug/L for Cr, 0.009 and 0.03 ug/L for Cu, and 0.15 and 0.5 ug/L for Zn.

Implications

This source contributes China-market industrial-vicinity occurrence evidence for wheat, corn, leafy vegetables, non-root vegetables, and radish/root vegetables. Soil, groundwater, and particulate values are exposure-context evidence and are not product concentration values. The crop and vegetable concentrations are reported in mg/kg; downstream extraction should keep wheat, corn, leafy vegetables, and root vegetables separate, and should not treat total Hg as methylmercury, total As as inorganic arsenic, or total Cr as Cr(VI).

Related evidence

• Wheat
• maize
• Vegetables
• Leafy Vegetables
• Root vegetables
• Other grain products (oat, millet, quinoa, barley)
• Leafy / Green Vegetables, Other
• Non-Root Vegetables
• Root and Tuber Vegetables
• Mercury, Total
• Arsenic, Total
• Nickel
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Chromium
• Copper
• Zinc

Update history

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