Effects of Soil Properties on Pb, Cd, and Cu Contents in Tobacco Leaves of Longyan, China, and Their Prediction Models.

Longyan City in Fujian Province is one of China's top-quality tobacco-producing areas and plays an essential role in local economic development. To determine the correlation between heavy metal content in tobacco leaves and soil factors, soil physical and chemical properties and heavy metal contents of lead, cadmium, and copper in tobacco leaves were measured and analyzed by the correlation regression method. The content of lead, cadmium, and copper in soil was determined using hydrochloric acid extraction-AAS and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry was used to determine heavy metal in tobacco leaf. The findings revealed that the average concentrations of lead, cadmium, and copper in the soil were 12.1, 0.092, and 3.88 mg/kg, respectively. In contrast, the average levels of lead, cadmium, and copper in tobacco leaves were 2.33, 4.89, and 4.35 mg/kg, respectively. The cadmium enrichment coefficient of 54.3 was higher than lead and copper, indicating a greater health risk. Soil pH value was negatively correlated with lead content in tobacco leaf, while potassium and phosphorus nutrient levels were negatively correlated with copper content. In contrast, a positive correlation was established between the presence of organic matter with cadmium content in tobacco leaves. The prediction models of lead, cadmium, and copper in tobacco leaves can be expressed by the regression equation corresponding to each heavy metal as follows: YPb=2.33 - 0.005∗ XK+0.007∗XN - 0.271∗XpH+0.065∗XPb (R2 = 0.787), YCd=1.55+0.012∗XOM - 0.014∗XCu+34.6∗XCd (R2 = 0.891), and YCu=4.64 - 0.029∗XP - 0.007∗XK+0.245∗XCu (R2 = 0.724), respectively. The prediction models above provide an effective predictive tool for assessing heavy metal risk in tobacco leaves using soil properties in the study area.

Probabilistic health risk assessment and monetization based on benzene series exposure in newly renovated teaching buildings.

To meet the needs of the rapid development of education, there have been growing investments in the issue of university infrastructures. However, few studies have paid attention to the assessment and monetization of health risks in newly renovated teaching buildings. In this study, concentrations of the benzene series (BTEX) group were measured in five areas of three newly renovated teaching buildings. A total of 135 BTEX samples were collected using passive diffusion monitors and analyzed by GC-FID. Human health risk assessments were conducted by using probabilistic methods for four types of population exposure to BTEX. The results showed that the cancer risk of benzene accounted for most of the total in each group. There was over 90% probability of excess cancer risks in the areas within the tested buildings; and the non-cancer risks were all within the acceptable level. The health risks of men were greater than those of women, and those of teachers were higher than those of students. The model calculation results of Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) and Willingness to Pay (WTP) indicated that the average price that society was willing to pay to offset the health damage caused in these newly renovated teaching buildings was 381.35 yuan/year. For the first time, this study highlights the health risks of newly built teaching buildings in universities, points out the urgent need to improve the control of BTEX sources in this type of indoor environment; moreover, it provides theoretical support for the society and occupational protection departments to compensate for the health damage to professionals.

Trace Metal Lead Exposure in Typical Lip Cosmetics From Electronic Commercial Platform: Investigation, Health Risk Assessment and Blood Lead Level Analysis.

Lead (Pb) in lipstick products has become an increasing concern, which can cause safety problems to human body directly with diet. To investigate the Pb exposure and potential health risk level of typical popular lip cosmetics in Chinese e-commerce market, Python crawler was introduced to identify and select 34 typical popular lip cosmetics, including 12 lipsticks, 13 lip glosses, and 9 lip balms. And then this study used ICP-MS to determine the content of Pb. Furthermore, the ingestion health risk assessment method issued by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Monte Carlo simulation algorithm were applied to assess the probabilistic health risks of adults exposure. Finally, taking the possible exposure of children contacting with lip products, the health risk assessment of children blood Pb was carried out. The results showed that the concentration of Pb in lip products ranged from 0 to 0.5237 mg/kg, which was far lower than the limit set by various countries. The probabilistic non-carcinogenic risks and carcinogenic risks were 4.93 ×10-7~2.82 ×10-3 and 1.68 ×10-12~9.59 ×10-9, respectively, which were in an acceptable level. The results of blood Pb assessment suggested that the Pb content of lip cosmetics had no obvious influence on blood Pb concentration of children, and background Pb exposure is the main factor affecting children's blood Pb level (BLL). Overall, the samples of lip products are selected by Python crawler in this study, which are more objective and representative. This study focuses on deeper study of Pb, especially for the health risk assessment of blood Pb in children exposed to lip products. These results perhaps could provide useful information for the safety cosmetics usage for people in China and even the global world.

Investigation and probabilistic health risk assessment of trace elements in good sale lip cosmetics crawled by Python from Chinese e-commerce market.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the lip products are polluted by heavy metals, which would inevitably cause safety problems with long-term exposure, but few studies have focused on their deeper health risk assessments. This study sets out to identify the lip cosmetics in good sale from Chinese e-commerce market utilizing Python crawler and then explore the probabilistic health risks caused by 6 trace elements in 34 most popular lip cosmetics with Monte Carlo simulation. The results found that there was no obvious non-carcinogenic risk to humans. As for high users, the carcinogenic risk levels of Cr exceeded the acceptable risk recommended by USEPA, approximately 10% and 25% for lipsticks and lip glosses, respectively. Cr was regarded as the priority metal for risk control in the present study. Finally, it was recommended that the minimum use period limit for using up one lip product ranged from 0.54 months to 5.74 months. Overall, this study appears to be the first to conduct a probabilistic health risk assessment of trace elements in lip products, which would be of significance for policy makers to take effective strategies to minimize exposure health risk and contamination.

Concentration Levels, Biological Enrichment Capacities and Potential Health Risk Assessment of Trace Elements in Eichhornia crassipes from Honghu Lake, China.

This study investigated the concentrations of Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, As and Cd in different tissues of E. crassipes from Honghu Lake. The total concentrations of trace elements in E. crassipes were observed in descending order: Zn (111.6162) > Cu (15.7494) > Cr (7.0466) > Pb (5.6251) > As (3.6831) > Cd (0.1941) mg/kg. The order of the bioconcentration factor (BCF) measured in E. crassipes was Zn > As > Cr > Cu > Pb > Cd > 1, indicating that E. crassipes possessed a strong biological enrichment ability to accumulate a variety of trace elements. The translocation factor (TF) values decreased in the order of Cu > Zn > Cr > As > Pb > Cd, all of which were lower than 1, which showed that the absorption of the trace elements by E. crassipes was mainly accomplished in the roots. Moreover, the health risk assessments showed that the carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic risks of the edible parts of E. crassipes were 26.1 and 4.6 times higher than the maximum acceptable value recommended by the USEPA for adults and children of approximately 39.2- and 6.9-fold, respectively. Children were more sensitive than adults. The main trace elements that led to noncarcinogenic risks were As, Cr and Cu, while Cr and As led to carcinogenic risks. The results of the Pearson correlation showed positive correlations with the concentrations of Zn, Cr and As between E. crassipes and the water as well as negative correlations of the contents of all six trace elements between E. crassipes and the sediment.

A Fuzzy Comprehensive Assessment and Hierarchical Management System for Urban Lake Health: A Case Study on the Lakes in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.

Environmental assessment of eutrophication or heavy metals in urban lakes is an important reference for identifying the pollution degree and formulating pollution prevention strategies. At present, the most research on lake health states is often evaluated from a single angle for toxic metals pollution or eutrophication using the standard comparison method for both, the comprehensive trophic level index (TLI), and the health risk assessment for toxic metals. Moreover, the above deterministic methods probably lead to biased or unreliable assessment due to the randomness and fuzziness in environment system caused by natural change and human activities. In this paper, a fuzzy comprehensive lake health assessment method (FCLHAM) was established to evaluate comprehensive lake health states more comprehensively and accurately, which integrates quantitative eutrophication and health risk considerations. To test and verify FCLHAM, 21 lakes, scientifically selected from the total 143 lakes in the Chinese Wuhan city as study case, were investigated and analyzed for their state of eutrophication and the health risk posed by heavy metals. According to the FCLHAM, the average comprehensive lake health state decreased in the sequence of L20 (considerate risk level) > L1⁻L17, L19, L21 (moderate risk level) > L18 (low risk level). Based on the result, lakes were classified into three categories: general management (L18), enhanced management (L1⁻L17, L19, L21), and priority management (L20). If the 143 lakes in Wuhan were classified by the "area-region-function" classification, they would be assigned to the same category as the representative lakes of the same type. At this point, we will attribute all of Wuhan's lakes to the three types. Depending on the characteristics of each type, a targeted approach to different types of management for each type of lake is a more efficient way to manage many of Wuhan's lakes. This management mode also serves as an effective reference for the environmental management of urban lakes both at home and abroad. In other words, according to the FCLHAM, a hierarchical management system based on lake characteristics classification was obtained.

Spatial Distribution, Chemical Fraction and Fuzzy Comprehensive Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediments from the Honghu Lake, China.

Spatial concentrations and chemical fractions of heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd) in 16 sampling sites from the Honghu Lake were investigated using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer and optimized BCR (the European Community Bureau of Reference) three-stage extraction procedure. Compared with the corresponding probable effect levels (PELs), adverse biological effects of the studied five sediment metals decreased in the sequence of Cr > Cu > Zn > Pb > Cd. Geo-accumulation index (Igeo) values for Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn in each sampling site were at un-contamination level, while the values for Cd varied from un-contamination level to moderate contamination level. Spatially, the enrichment degree of Cd in lower part of the South Lake, the west part of the North Lake and the outlet were higher than the other parts of Honghu Lake. For metal chemical fractions, the proportions of the acid-extractable fraction of five metal contents were in the descending order: Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb and Cr. Cd had the highest bioaccessibility. Being the above indexes focused always on heavy metals' total content or chemical fraction in deterministic assessment system, which may confuse decision makers, the fuzzy comprehensive risk assessment method was established based on PEI (Potential ecological risk index), RAC (Risk assessment code) and fuzzy theory. Average comprehensive risks of heavy metals in sediments revealed the following orders: Cd (considerable risk) > Cu (moderate risk) > Zn (low risk) > Pb > Cr. Thus, Cd and Cu were determined as the pollutants of most concern. The central part of South Honghu Lake (S4, S5, S6, S9, S12 and S14), east part of the North Honghu Lake (S1) and outlet of outlet of the Honghu Lake (S10) were recommended as the priority control areas. Specifically, it is necessary to pay more attention to S1, S4, S5, S6, S9 and S16 when decision making for their calculated membership values (probabilities) of adjacent risk levels quite close.

Heavy metals and metalloid distribution in different organs and health risk assessment for edible tissues of fish captured from Honghu Lake.

Honghu Lake is the seventh largest freshwater lake in China, and fishery is one of the most important economic sources for local inhabitants. Toxic metal concentrations in muscle of all analyzed fish species captured from Honghu Lake were generally below China standards, except Cr in crucian carp. The average concentrations were decreased in the following order, Zn (14.65 mg/kg) > Cr (1.25 mg/kg) > Cu (0.5994 mg/kg) > Pb (0.0884 mg/kg) > Cd (0.0069 mg/kg) > As (0.0007 mg/kg). There was no significant health risk in consuming fish captured from Honghu Lake, based on the analysis results of target hazard quotient (THQ), carcinogenic risk (CR), and estimated weekly intake (EWI). Mixed edible fish tissues consuming brought higher carcinogenic risks than muscle consuming. Pb was regarded as the major contributor of potential non-carcinogenic risk, while As of the potential carcinogenic risk. THQ set the most stringent allowed values of the average consuming amount of fish muscle at 1,316 g/d, while CR set the value of mixed fish tissues at 525 g/d.

Spatial Distribution and Fuzzy Health Risk Assessment of Trace Elements in Surface Water from Honghu Lake.

Previous studies revealed that Honghu Lake was polluted by trace elements due to anthropogenic activities. This study investigated the spatial distribution of trace elements in Honghu Lake, and identified the major pollutants and control areas based on the fuzzy health risk assessment at screening level. The mean total content of trace elements in surface water decreased in the order of Zn (18.04 µg/L) > Pb (3.42 µg/L) > Cu (3.09 µg/L) > Cr (1.63 µg/L) > As (0.99 µg/L) > Cd (0.14 µg/L), within limits of Drinking Water Guidelines. The results of fuzzy health risk assessment indicated that there was no obvious non-carcinogenic risk to human health, while carcinogenic risk was observed in descending order of As > Cr > Cd > Pb. As was regarded to have the highest carcinogenic risk among selected trace elements because it generally accounted for 64% of integrated carcinogenic risk. Potential carcinogenic risk of trace elements in each sampling site was approximately at medium risk level (10-5 to 10-4). The areas in the south (S4, S13, and S16) and northeast (S8, S18, and S19) of Honghu Lake were regarded as the risk priority control areas. However, the corresponding maximum memberships of integrated carcinogenic risk in S1, S3, S10-S13, S15, and S18 were of relatively low credibility (50-60%), and may mislead the decision-makers in identifying the risk priority areas. Results of fuzzy assessment presented the subordinate grade and corresponding reliability of risk, and provided more full-scale results for decision-makers, which made up for the deficiency of certainty assessment to a certain extent.

Investigation, Pollution Mapping and Simulative Leakage Health Risk Assessment for Heavy Metals and Metalloids in Groundwater from a Typical Brownfield, Middle China.

Heavy metal and metalloid (Cr, Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni, As and Hg) concentrations in groundwater from 19 typical sites throughout a typical brownfield were detected. Mean concentrations of toxic metals in groundwater decreased in the order of Cr > Zn > Cu > Cd > Ni > Pb > Hg > As. Concentration of Cr6+ in groundwater was detected to further study chromium contamination. Cr6+ and Cd in groundwater were recommended as the priority pollutants because they were generally 1399-fold and 12-foldgreater than permissible limits, respectively. Owing to the fact that a waterproof curtain (WPC) in the brownfield is about to pass the warranty period, a steady two-dimensional water quality model and health risk assessment were applied to simulate and evaluate adverse effects of Cr6 + and Cd on the water quality of Xiangjiang River and the drinking-water intake of Wangcheng Waterworks. The results indicated that when groundwater in the brownfield leaked with valid curtain prevention, the water quality in Xiangjiang River and drinking-water intake downstream were temporarily unaffected. However, if there was no curtain prevention, groundwater leakage would have adverse impact on water quality of Xiangjiang River. Under the requirements of Class III surface water quality, the pollution belt for Cr6+ was 7500 m and 200 m for Cd. The non-carcinogenic risk of toxic metals in Xiangjiang River exceeded the threshold in a limited area, but did not threaten Wangcheng Waterworks. By contrast, the carcinogenic risk area for adults was at a transverse distance of 200 m and a longitudinal distance of 18,000 m, which was close to the Wangcheng Waterworks (23,000 m). Therefore, it was essential to reconstruct the WPC in the brownfield for preventing pollution diffusion.

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

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.