In Vitro Health Risk Assessment of Ingesting Metal-Enriched Soils and Dusts in a Chinese Mining City

To evaluate the potential health hazards caused by extensive vanadium-titanium magnetite mining, bioavailability and bioaccessibility of metals were assessed in the pluralistic mining-agriculture-residential city of Panzhihua, China. Intensive mining and related heavy traffic may have contributed to Ni, Cr, and Zn contamination and Mn and V accumulation in soils and road dusts. The metal bioavailability estimated by water extraction was significantly lower than metal bioaccessibility on the basis of the simple bioaccessibility extraction test. The bioaccessible metal concentrations were significantly and positively correlated with soil/dust total metal concentrations (p<.05). However, bioavailable metal concentrations exhibited no relationship with total metal concentrations except for V. The bioaccessibility of metals significantly varied and exhibited the following order: Pb>Zn>Mn>Ni >V>Cr. Health risk assessment indicated that the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks posed by these metals were at an acceptable level, but Cr in soils of the mining area and V in surface soils along the Jinsha River were close to the safe level for children. Therefore, the potential health risk attributed to the exposure of children to metals in surface soils and roaddusts in such areas should not be overlooked.