Enrichment and assessment of the health risks posed by heavy metals in PM₁ in Changji, Xinjiang, China

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to investigate the influence of human activity on heavy metals in a typical arid urban area of China and assess human health risks posed by heavy metals in PM₁ (particles <1.0 μm in diameter) for different people. In this paper, Changji (Xinjiang, China) was selected as the study area, and samples were collected from March 2014 to March 2015. A total 14 elements in PM₁ were quantified using ICP-MS. An enrichment factor (EF) was used to assess the influence of human activity on the contamination of these metals. The results indicated that Mn was not enriched; Co, Cu, Cr, Ni, Tl, and V were slightly enriched; Mo, Pb, and Sb were moderately enriched; and Ag, As, and Cd were strongly enriched. To assess the health risks associated with inhaling PM₁, the risk assessment code and loss in life expectancy based on the individual metals were calculated. The results showed that the elements Ag, Cu, Mo, Pb, Sb, Tl, and V in PM₁ posed low levels of non-carcinogenic risks, but these metals may still pose risks to certain susceptible populations. In addition, the results also showed that As, Co, and Cr posed an appreciable carcinogenic risk, while Cd and Ni posed low levels of carcinogenic risk. The total predicted loss of life expectancy caused by the three metals As, Co, and Ni was 63.67 d for the elderly, 30.95 d for adult males, 26.62 d for adult females, and 48.22 d for children. Therefore, the safety of the elderly and children exposed to PM₁ should be given more attention than the safety of adults. The results from this study demonstrate that the health risks posed by heavy metals in PM₁ in Changji, Xinjiang, China should be examined.

KEYWORDS:

• Enrichment
• health risk
• heavy metals
• loss of life expectancy
• PM₁

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Zucheng Wang teacher of Northeast Normal University, and Kun Zhang, Shicai Zhang, Tao Zhang, Yunjia Mao, and others in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Chemistry at Changji University for helping complete the sampling and experimental work.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (41461090), National Natural Science Foundation (41261062), and Xinjiang natural science fund (2016D01C001).