Introducing a land-use-based spatial analysis method for human health risk evaluation of soil heavy metals

摘要

A land-use-based method for potential human health risk analysis was introduced by employing soil sampling data in Zhuzhou City, China. It was found that distribution and sources of heavy metals (As, Cd, Pb, Zn and Cr) in soil had a large variation among different land-use types. A total of 8.3 % of the study area recorded a hazard index (HI) above the threshold of 1.0. High His were located mainly in the industrial area. The largest contribution to HI was the arsenic (over 87 %) and the pathway of soil ingestion (about 76 %). The mean standardized error and root mean square standardized error indicated that the land-use-based simulation method provided more accurate estimates than the method that applied geostatistical methods to the whole study area and did not consider land-use information. The areas of greater concern for human health can be spatially identified and health risks can be better quantified by evaluation of different land-use types.