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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination
and Human Health Risks Associated with
Soil and Crops at a Zinc Smelting Waste
Dump in Northwest Guizhou, China
1
College of Biology and Environment Engineering, Guiyang University, Guiyang 550005, China
2
Teaching Equipment and Laboratory Management Center, Guiyang University, Guiyang 550005, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2024-03-10
Final revision date: 2024-04-23
Acceptance date: 2024-05-27
Online publication date: 2025-01-29
Publication date: 2025-04-04
Corresponding author
Guangxu Zhu
College of Biology and Environment Engineering, Guiyang University, Guiyang 550005, China
College of Biology and Environment Engineering, Guiyang University, Guiyang 550005, China
Qiang Tu
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(4):3963-3974
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The heavy metals in a zinc smelting waste dump area, northwest of Guizhou Province Henan, were
investigated, and the subsequent evaluation of the pollution characteristics and health risks was conducted
in the present study. The results indicated that the average levels of Cd, Pb, and Zn in slag and its
surrounding soil significantly exceeded the soil background values in Guizhou Province and the values
specified in the Soil Environmental Quality Risk Control Standard for Soil Contamination of Agricultural
Land. The total non-carcinogenic risk values for children and adults, resulting from various heavy metals
in waste slag through multiple exposure routes, were found to be 28.89 and 16.81 times higher than
the acceptable level of 1, respectively, with Pb contributing to most of the risks. The integrated pollution
index mean values for all crops exceeded the threshold value of 3.0 for heavy pollution, indicating that
consuming crops from the study area posed significant risks to the general population. It was also noted
that the potential health risks of heavy metals for children were higher than for adults. The heavy metal
contents in soil and corn decreased with increasing distance from the slag heap, consuming corn grown on
farmland 150 meters from the slag heap still posed health risks to humans.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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