Department of Soil Science, G.B. Pant, University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, 263 145, India.
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Center, Koraput, Odisha, 763 002, India.
Environ Monit Assess. 2023 Jun 19;195(7):863. doi: 10.1007/s10661-023-11476-3.
Potentially toxic metals (PTMs) contamination in the soil poses a serious danger to people's health by direct or indirect exposure, and generally it occurs by consuming food grown in these soils. The present study assessed the pollution levels and risk to human health upon sustained exposure to PTM concentrations in the area's centuries-old glass industry clusters of the city of Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Soil sampling (0-15 cm) was done in farmers' fields within a 1 km radius of six industrial clusters. Various environmental (geo-accumulation index, contamination factor, pollution load index, enrichment factor, and ecological risk index) and health risk indices (hazard quotient, carcinogenic risk) were computed to assess the extent of damage caused to the environment and the threat to human health. Results show that the mean concentrations of Cu (33 mg kg), Zn (82.5 mg kg), and Cr (15.3 mg kg) were at safe levels, whereas the levels of Pb, Ni, and Cd exceeded their respective threshold limits. A majority of samples (88%) showed considerable ecological risk due to the co-contamination of these six PTMs. Health risk assessment indicated tolerable cancer and non-cancer risk in both adults and children for all PTMs, except Ni, where adults were exposed to potential threat of cancer. Pearson's correlation study revealed a significant positive correlation between all six metal pairs and conducting principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed the common source of metal pollution. The PC score ranked different sites from highest to lowest according to PTM loads that help to establish the location of the source. Hierarchical cluster analysis grouped different sites into the same cluster based on similarity in PTMs load, i.e., low, medium, and high.
土壤中潜在有毒金属（PTMs）的污染通过直接或间接暴露对人类健康构成严重威胁，通常是通过食用生长在这些土壤中的食物而发生的。本研究评估了印度北方邦菲罗扎巴德市数百年历史的玻璃工业集群地区，由于持续暴露于 PTM 浓度而对人类健康造成的污染水平和风险。在六个工业集群 1 公里半径范围内的农民田间进行了土壤采样（0-15 厘米）。为了评估对环境造成的破坏程度和对人类健康的威胁，计算了各种环境（地积累指数、污染因子、污染负荷指数、富集因子和生态风险指数）和健康风险指数（危害商数、致癌风险）。结果表明，Cu（33mgkg）、Zn（82.5mgkg）和 Cr（15.3mgkg）的平均浓度处于安全水平，而 Pb、Ni 和 Cd 的浓度超过了各自的阈值限制。由于这六种 PTM 的共同污染，大多数（88%）样本显示出相当大的生态风险。健康风险评估表明，对于所有 PTM 来说，成人和儿童的癌症和非癌症风险都是可以容忍的，除了 Ni，成人接触到潜在的癌症威胁。Pearson 相关研究表明，所有六种金属对之间都存在显著的正相关关系，主成分分析（PCA）证实了金属污染的共同来源。PC 得分根据 PTM 负荷对不同地点进行了从高到低的排名，这有助于确定污染源的位置。层次聚类分析根据 PTM 负荷的相似性将不同地点分为同一组，即低、中、高。
