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eISSN: 2083-5906
ISSN: 1230-1485
ISSN: 1230-1485
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Distribution and Human Health Risk
Assessment of Heavy Metals in Rice Fields
and Crops under Rural Domestic Reclaimed
Water Irrigation in Jinhua, China
1
Rural Water Conservancy Research Institute, Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics and Estuary (Zhejiang Institute of Marine
Planning and Design), Hangzhou 310020, China
2
School of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
Submission date: 2024-10-07
Final revision date: 2025-01-13
Acceptance date: 2025-05-17
Online publication date: 2025-09-22
Corresponding author
Menghua Xiao
Rural Water Conservancy Research Institute, Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics and Estuary (Zhejiang Institute of Marine Planning and Design), Hangzhou 310020, China
Rural Water Conservancy Research Institute, Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics and Estuary (Zhejiang Institute of Marine Planning and Design), Hangzhou 310020, China
KEYWORDS
reclaimed water irrigationheavy metalsrice fieldsmigration and accumulationhuman health risk assessment
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The ecological and health risks caused by heavy metals (HMs) have become a global challenge.
In Jinhua, China, four kinds of irrigation water sources (primary and secondary treated water R1
and R2 of rural domestic sewage, purified water R3, and river water (CK) and three kinds of water
level regulations (low, medium and high water level control of W1, W2 and W3) were set to study
the impact of rural domestic reclaimed water (RDRW) irrigation on the distribution and migration
of HMs in soil, plants, and groundwater. The HM content in RDRW met the standards for irrigation
water quality, compared to CK, under RDRW irrigation, the Cd and Zn contents in rice fields increased,
while the Cr and Pb contents decreased, the impact of irrigation water sources on the HM content
was gradually weakened along the direction of stems, leaves, and grains, and the groundwater has
not been contaminated. Additionally, the migration ability of HMs from the soil to rice plants was not
significantly affected, soil's ability to reduce HMs was enhanced, with a reduction rate over 96% for
Zn, Cr, Cu, and Cd, and the rice grains showed moderate uptake of Zn and Cd, weak uptake of Cr and
Cu, and extremely weak uptake of Pb. Under RDRW irrigation, oral-crops were the main risk exposure
pathway, with adults and children accounting for 60.92% and 63.61% of the total individual annual risk,
respectively, and Cd contributed the most to the total individual annual risk, and it was the main HM
element causing health risks. It is recommended to strengthen the monitoring and prevention of Cd
accumulation in reclaimed water irrigation areas.
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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