Toxic metals in agricultural soils near the industrial areas of Bangladesh: ecological and human health risk assessment

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the potential ecological and human health risk of toxic metals in agricultural soils near the industrial areas of Bangladesh. In this study, six toxic metals (chromium, nickel, copper, arsenic, cadmium, and lead) were assessed in 58 soil samples of five different sampling sites around the industrial areas of Jhenaidah and Kushtia districts in Bangladesh. Toxic metals were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Potential ecological and human health risk were assessed through enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (C_fⁱ), geoaccumulation index (I_geo), pollution load index (PLI), toxic unit analysis, chronic daily intake through exposure pathway, hazard quotient, and hazard index. The mean concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and Pb were found to be 5.78, 21.0, 31.8, 8.05, 1.20, and 19.2 mg/kg, respectively. Metals concentrations were found below the recommended value set by Dutch standard, Canadian guidelines, and Australian guidelines except Cd. Principal component analysis indicates that most of the metals in agricultural soils are coming from industrial sector. The mean values of EF, I_geo, C_fⁱ, PLI, and toxic units were found safe level for all metals except Cd. In the view of potential ecological risk (PER), soils from all sampling sites indicated moderate to very high PER. Total target hazard quotients for all the studied metals in total sampling sites were <1 and cancer risk values were <10⁻⁶ indicating low noncarcinogenic and cancer risk for adult and children.

Keywords:

• Agricultural soils
• toxic metals
• PCA
• ecological risk
• health risk
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the authority of Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU), Bangladesh and Yokohama National University, Japan for providing laboratory facilities to complete this study. Furthermore, the authors are thankful for the kind help from the members Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Bangladesh during the field sampling.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.