Appraisal of vulnerable zones of non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic causing health risks associated with exposure of potentially toxic elements in soils of India: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Contamination of soil potentially toxic elements (PTEs) has observed in many parts of the world, specifically developing countries such as India. In this study, we only obtained the available data in the literature from 2001 to 2020 on soil PTEs in India. To evaluate the soil contamination, geo-accumulation index and contamination factor (CF) were implemented, along with the health risk assessment was also applied which was proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The mean values obtained for soils of India are Cr (412.28 mg/kg), Cu (159.78 mg/kg), Zn (437.44), Pb (77.25 mg/kg) and As (38.61 mg/kg). The geo-accumulation index and CF showed that Cu, Zn, Ni and As are the main contaminants. The results of health risk show that children are susceptible to both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks of the studied PTEs compared to adults.

Keywords:

• Potentially toxic elements
• distribution
• health risk assessment
• India

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Department of Science and Technology (DST)—Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) Government of India, New Delhi under the Start-Up Research Grant (Young Scientists) Project (SR/FTP/ES-13/2013), which is gratefully acknowledged.