Chemosphere xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Chemosphere
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere

Review

Contamination and health risk assessment of heavy metals in China’s

leadezinc mine tailings: A metaeanalysis
Xiaoqing Kan a, Yiqie Dong a, Lu Feng a, Min Zhou a, **, Haobo Hou a, b, *
a
School of Resource and Environmental Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, Hubei, China
b
Zhaoqing (Wuhan University) Environmental Technology Research Institute, Zhaoqing, 526200, Guangdong, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Concentrations of heavy metals in

China’s leadezinc mine tailings are
reviewed.

The temporal variation of heavy
metal contents fluctuates
dynamically.

The contaminated areas are mainly
located in southern and eastern
China.

As and Pb present high non-
carcinogenic risks.

As and Cu present the unacceptable
carcinogenic risks.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The leadezinc areas of China have faced serious foulteousqulated heavy metal pollution. In this study,
Received 3 August 2020 data on As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn concentrations in China’s leadezinc mine tailings were collected
Received in revised form and screened from published literature (2015e2020). The contamination assessments, geographical
25 October 2020
distributions, and health risk assessments of the eight heavy metals were analyzed. The results revealed
Accepted 5 November 2020
Available online xxx
that the mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn exceeded the corresponding background
values for soils. Moreover, most of the leadezinc mine tailing areas contaminated by heavy metals were
Handling Editor: Martine Leermakers located in the southern and eastern regions of China. The health risk assessment results indicated that
oral ingestion was the main exposure route of heavy metals in the mine tailings, and children were more
vulnerable to adverse effects. For a single metal, As and Pb presented high non-carcinogenic risks, and As
and Cu presented the unacceptable carcinogenic risks. This study provides a timely analysis proving the
urgent necessity of the treatment of heavy metal pollution in leadezinc tailings in China.
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2. Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.1. Data collection and processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00

* Corresponding author. School of Resource and Environmental Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, Hubei, China.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: zhoumin@whu.edu.cn (M. Zhou), houhb@whu.edu.cn (H. Hou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128909
0045-6535/© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Please cite this article as: X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al., Contamination and health risk assessment of heavy metals in China’s leadezinc mine
tailings: A metaeanalysis, Chemosphere, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128909
X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al. Chemosphere xxx (xxxx) xxx

2.2. Soil contamination assessment based on the geoaccumulation index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00

2.3. Human exposure and health risk assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.3.1. Exposure assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.3.2. Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3. Results and discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3.1. Concentrations of heavy metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3.2. Contamination assessments of heavy metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3.3. Distributions of heavy metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3.4. Health risk assessment of heavy metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3.4.1. Non-carcinogenic risk assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
3.4.2. Carcinogenic risk assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
4. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
Declaration of competing interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
Supplementary data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00

1. Introduction health risks posed by these soil heavy metals.

China has a vast territory and is rich in heavy metal mineral

resources. Leadezinc mineral resources are indispensable impor- 2. Materials and methods
tant resources in the development of the national economy. How-
ever, the environmental impacts of developing these resources 2.1. Data collection and processing
have been ignored, resulting in a large amount of leadezinc mine
tailing pollution (Zhang et al., 2012; Li et al., 2014). Affected by This research reviews relevant information on heavy metal
longeterm oxidation and changes in the external environment, pollution in China’s leadezinc mine tailings from 2015 to 2020. This
heavy metals contained in tailing soil directly penetrates through study included eight heavy metals of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and
the soil and groundwater of mining areas or flow into nearby rivers Zn, all of which are priority heavy metal pollutants as designated by
and soil through surface runoff and groundwater recharge; thus, United States Environmental Protection Agent (USEPA). From the
heavy metal content in surrounding environments increase rapidly, main literature databases including Web of Science, China Knowl-
causing serious heavy metal pollution (Ye et al., 2002). edge Fulletext Literature Database, and China Wanfang Literature
Heavy metals mainly refer to metals and metalloids with a Database, more than 960 original materials were collected. After
density greater than 5 g/cm3, such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), screening, 34 articles meeting the standards were selected. The
chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb). Heavy metals not only data about these areas are described in Table S1.
cause environmental pollution but also cause considerable harm to In the selected studies, samples were collected from the tailings
the human body when they accumulate in body organs and living through multipoint mixing, systematic random sampling, or sys-
organisms through the food chain (Sun et al., 2020; Dong et al., tematic grid sampling (Ye et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2016). Samples
2011). For example, Pb can damage the nervous system, kidney, were usually collected from different depths of the mine tailings:
and liver, resulting in gastrointestinal damage, child amentia, and 0e20 cm (Huang et al., 2017), 10e20 cm (Wu et al., 2018), 0e30 cm
Alzheimer’s disease (Silver et al., 2016; Boskabady et al., 2018; (Shi et al., 2017), and 0e50 cm (Zhou et al., 2016). In all studies, soil
Ebrahimi et al., 2020). Similarly, Cd can cause breast, hepatic, samples were evenly mixed, airedried, crushed, and sieved until
pancreatic, lung, and skin cancer (Buha et al., 2017; Ju et al., 2017; powders were obtained for subsequent use. Then the powders
Venza et al., 2015). Hg exposure may lead to central nervous system were digested using an acid mixture, such as HNO3eHClO4eHF (Ma
defects, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, kidney damage, and respi- et al., 2019), HNO3eHClO4eHCl (Tang et al., 2019), and
ratory failure (Kim et al., 2016). HCleHNO3eHFeHClO4 (Ma et al., 2020). The digested samples
Humans are exposed to heavy metals in soil through three were analyzed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (Wen
principal routes: oral ingestion; dermal contact; and inhalation (Shi et al., 2018), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (Lei
et al., 2011; Kolo et al., 2018). Exploring the impacts of these et al., 2015), atomic absorption spectroscopy (Shi et al., 2016), or
exposure routes can help reduce the risk of heavy metals on human inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (Huang
health. In recent years, health risk assessment has been used to et al., 2018).
evaluate the contamination level of heavy metals in different types The mean, percentile values (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th),
of soil, such as agricultural soils near petrochemical industrial and coefficient of variation of the heavy metals found in various
complexes (Zhang et al., 2020; Cao et al., 2020), estuarine wetlands leadezinc mine tailings were calculated (Table S2). All the statis-
(Wang et al., 2020), and urban street dust (Chang and Li, 2020). tical analyses were performed using the SPSS software package,
Nevertheless, most studies focused on few sites and lacked version 21.0 (IBM, SPSS Statistics, Chicago, IL, USA).
comprehensive research.
In this study, the pollution levels and health risks of the heavy
metals in China’s leadezinc mine tailings were evaluated based on 2.2. Soil contamination assessment based on the geoaccumulation
research published from 2015 to 2020. The objectives of this study index
were as follows: 1) to evaluate the contamination levels of the
heavy metals in China’s leadezinc mine tailings; 2) to identify the In this study, the geoaccumulation index (Igeo) was applied to
geographical distributions of the heavy metals; and 3) to assess the the assessment of soil contamination. The Igeo value was calculated
according to Eq. (1) (Muller, 1969):
2
X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al.
Igeo ¼ log2(Cn/1.5Bn)
where Cn is the measured concentration of every heavy metal
found in the mine tailing (mg/kg), and Bn is the geochemical
background value of heavy metals found in the soil (mg/kg), which
is given in Table S3 (CNEMC, 1990; Tan et al., 2010). The content 1.5
represents a background matrix correction factor that is usually
used in characterizing sedimentary characteristics, rock geology,
and other anthropogenic influences (Yan et al., 2020). The Igeo
values for heavy metals calculated by the above formula are listed
in Table S4. The Igeo value can be classified into seven grades, which
correspond to different contaminated levels (Table 1).
2.3. Human exposure and health risk assessment
Human health risk assessment is the process of predicting the
probability of the adverse effects of environmental pollutants on
human health. The eight heavy metals included in this study are
substances that are potentially harmful to human health.
2.3.1. Exposure assessment
In this study, three exposure routes associated with soil heavy
metals were explored: oral ingestion, dermal contact, and inhala-
tion. Study subjects were grouped into children (age: 0e18 years)
and adults (age: > 18 years). The average daily intake (ADI) of heavy
metals were calculated using Eqs. (2)e(4) (Xiao et al., 2020; Kumar
et al., 2019).
Cs  IR  ED  EF  FI
ADIoral ¼  106
BW  AT
Cs  SA  AF  ABS  ED  EF
ADIdermal ¼  106
BW  AT
Cs  EF  ED  ET
ADIinh ¼
PEF  BW  AT
where ADIoral, ADIdermal, and ADIinh are the average daily intake of
heavy metals from oral, dermal, and inhalation absorption,
respectively (mg/kg/day); Cs is the heavy metal concentration in
soil (mg/kg); IR is the ingestion rate of soil (mg/day); ED is the
exposure duration (year); EF is the exposure frequency (days/year);
FI is factor ingested from contamination source (unitless); BW is the
body weight of an exposed individual (kg); AT is the time period
over which the dose is averaged (days); SA is the exposed skin
surface area (cm2); AF is the adherence factor (mg/cm2 h); ABS is
the dermal absorption factor (unitless); ET is the exposure time (h/
day); and PEF is the emission factor (m3/kg). Detailed parameter
values are listed in Table 2.
2.3.2. Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk assessments
Non-carcinogenic risk is calculated and assessed by the hazard
quotient (HQ), as proposed by Eq. (5) (Xiao et al., 2020; Kumar et al.,
2019).
Table 1
Seven grades comprising the geoaccumulation index.
Grade Value Soil quality
0 Igeo  0 Practically uncontaminated
1 0 < Igeo < 1 Uncontaminated to moderately contaminated
2 1 < Igeo < 2 Moderately contaminated
3 2 < Igeo < 3 Moderately to heavily contaminated
4 3 < Igeo < 4 Heavily contaminated
5 4 < Igeo < 5 heavily to extremely contaminated
6 Igeo > 5 Extremely contaminated
Chemosphere xxx (xxxx) xxx
(1)
ADI
HQ ¼ (5)
RfD
where RfD is the reference dose for each metal under different
exposure routes (mg/kg/day; Table 3). For the assessment of the
overall non-carcinogenic risk posed by multiple substances and/or
multiple exposure routes, the hazard index (HI) was calculated
from Eq. (6) (Xiao et al., 2020; Kumar et al., 2019).
X
HI ¼ HQ (6)
When HI is  1, no non-carcinogenic risks are likely to be
experienced, whereas HI values > 1 indicate potential non-
carcinogenic effects.
Carcinogenic risk (CR) index refers to the probability of a person
suffering from any kind of cancer in a lifetime as a result of expo-
sure to carcinogens and is calculated as follows (Eq. (7)) (Xiao et al.,
2020; Kumar et al., 2019):
CR ¼ ADI  SF (7)
where SF is the carcinogenicity slope factor of each metal under
different exposure routes (mg/kg/day; Table 3). The risk lying be-
tween 1  104 and 1  106 is generally considered an acceptable
range.
3. Results and discussion
(2) 3.1. Concentrations of heavy metals
The percentile and mean concentrations for the eight heavy
(3) metals are shown in Fig. 1 and Table S2. The mean concentration of
Cr was slightly lower than the background value for soils in China,
whereas the mean concentrations of the remaining seven heavy
(4) metals all exceeded the corresponding background values for soils
in China. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and
Zn were approximately 28.1, 81.2, 0.2, 1.7, 57.1, 1.4, 13.8, and 18.0
times that of the Grade II environmental quality standard for soils
in China, respectively. Approximately 100.0% of the Cd samples
exceeded the Grade II value, as did 94.6% of the Zn samples, 87.5% of
the Hg samples, 82.1% of the Pb samples, 64.7% of the As samples,
48.4% of the Cu samples, 30.0% of the Ni samples, and 0.0% of the Cr
samples (Table S5). The coefficient of variation of the heavy metal
concentrations in leadezinc mine tailing varied from 83.0% to
243.9% and increased in the order
Cr < Cd < Ni < As < Pb < Zn < Cu < Hg, that is, most of them showed
strong variations.
The results of metaeanalysis were carried out to explore the
trend of heavy metal content in leadezinc mine tailings over time.
According to the curves of the average contents in Fig. 2, the mean
concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, and Ni were significantly reduced in
2015e2020, whereas As was the opposite, while Hg, Pb, and Zn
basically maintained slight dynamic fluctuations. The result indi-
cated that although China has increased its environmental pro-
tection efforts in recent years, the heavy metal content in lead-zinc
mine tailings has not been effectively reduced.
3.2. Contamination assessments of heavy metals
The Igeo values in Table S6 revealed that more than 70% of the
examined mine tailings for Ni and Cr were in grade 0, that is,
practically uncontaminated. Strikingly, more than 60% of the
examined mine tailings for Cd, Pb, and Zn were above grade 5, that
is, most of the mine tailings were heavily to extremely
3
X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al. Chemosphere xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 2
Parameters used for the health risk assessment.

Parameters Description Units Value References

IR ingestion rate of soil mg/day 100 for adults USEPA (2011)

200 for children
ED exposure duration year 24 for adults USEPA (2011)
6 for children
EF exposure frequency days/year 350 USEPA (1989)
FI factor ingested from contamination source unitless 1
BW body weight of an exposed individual kg 63 for adults SEPAC (2013)
29 for children
AT average exposure time days ED  365 for non-carcinogens USEPA (2004)
76.6  365 for carcinogens SEPAC (2013)
SA exposed skin surface area cm2 5700 for adults USEPA (2004)
2800 for children
AF adherence factor mg/cm2 h 0.07 for adults USEPA (2002)
0.2 for children
ABS dermal absorption factor unitless 0.001 FerreiraeBaptista and De Miguel (2005)
ET exposure time h/day 8 USEPA (2001)
PEF emission factor m3/kg 1.36  109 USEPA (2002)

Table 3
Reference dose (RfD) and slope factor (SF) of heavy metals for health risk assessment.

Element Oral RfD Dermal RfD Inhalation RfD Oral SF Dermal SF Inhalation SF Reference

As 0.0003 0.000123 e 1.5 3.66 15.1 USEPA (2001)

Cd 0.001 0.00001 0.00001 6.1 6.1 6.3 Cheng et al. (2018)
Cr 0.003 0.00006 0.0000286 0.5 20 42 (Cheng et al., 2018; Jiang et al., 2017; Cao et al., 2015)
Cu 0.04 0.012 0.0402 1.7 42.5 e (Cheng et al., 2018; USEPA, 2001)
Hg 0.0003 0.000021 0.0000857 e e e Chen et al. (2016)
Ni 0.02 0.0054 0.00009 1.7 42.5 0.84 (Cao et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2018)
Pb 0.0035 0.000525 0.00352 0.0085 e e (Cheng et al., 2018; Jiang et al., 2017)
Zn 0.3 0.06 0.3 e e e Cheng et al. (2018)

Fig. 1. Boxplots of the heavy metal concentrations (mg/kg) for the examined leadezinc mine tailings (BVSC: Background values for soils in China; GIIEQSSC: Grade II environmental
quality standard for soils in China).

contaminated or even worse. Different from the above five heavy
metals, the As, Cu, and Hg showed considerable variations in their
Igeo values, with varying degrees of contamination.
The percentile and mean concentrations of the Igeo values for the
eight heavy metals are shown in Fig. 3. The mean Igeo values were
less than zero for Ni (0.84) and Cr (1.68), indicating that these
two heavy metals are practically uncontaminated (Table 1). The
mean Igeo values for Cu (1.58) and As (2.74) situated them in grade 2
and grade 3, respectively. Similarly, the mean Igeo values for Zn
(4.43) and Hg (4.10) placed these elements in grade 5, whereas Cd
(6.14) and Pb (5.21) were in grade 6. The contamination levels of the
eight heavy metals were generally in the order of Cd/Pb > Zn/
Hg > As > Cu > Ni/Cr (Fig. 3).

4
X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al.
Fig. 2. The temporal variation of heavy metal contents in the examined mine tailings.
Fig. 3. Boxplots of the geoacuumulation index (Igeo) for the eight heavy metals.
3.3. Distributions of heavy metals
The geographical contaminated level distribution of the eight
heavy metals in the examined mine tailings are shown in Fig. 4.
Most of the examined mine tailing areas are located in the southern
and eastern regions of China. Fig. 4 exhibits that China’s leadezinc
mine tailings are extremely contaminated with As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb,
and Zn, and mine tailings in Hunan and Guangdong provinces were
5
Chemosphere xxx (xxxx) xxx
the most contaminated. The examined mine tailings in Guizhou,
Hainan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Liaoning, and Guangxi provinces were
extremely contaminated by Cd, Pb, and Zn. In addition, the Cu
pollution in Guizhou and Zhejiang provinces, in which the Igeo
scales were in grade 6, had a significantly higher level than that in
the other provinces. The results reveal that heavy metal pollution in
mining areas is relatively serious in southern China possibly
because of the distribution of mineral resources and patterns of
mineral exploitation in China.
3.4. Health risk assessment of heavy metals
3.4.1. Non-carcinogenic risk assessment
The results for non-carcinogenic risks are shown in Table 4 and
Fig. 5. As shown in Fig. 5a and b, the oral ingestion route contrib-
uted 98.16% of non-carcinogenic risk for adults. Likewise, for chil-
dren, the oral ingestion route contributed 98.70%. The mean oral HI
for adults was 6.31, whereas the mean dermal and inhalation HI
were only 0.118 and 0.000577, respectively (Table 4). The contri-
bution of these three routes to non-carcinogenic risk to children
was similar to that in adults. Thus, oral ingestion is an important
route of exposure to heavy metals in the mine tailings.
The mean HI values for adults and children were 6.43 and 27.8,
respectively. The HQs of these eight heavy metals for children were
all higher than those for adults (Table 3). The higher HI and HQ
values for children indicates that children in heavy metal
contaminated areas were more vulnerable to adverse effects. This
result may be attributed to the particular behavioral patterns of
children, such as frequent pica behavior, finger or hand sucking, and
high respiration rate (Zhang et al., 2020).
The mean HI of a single heavy metal for adults and children
conformed the same value ordering trend,
As > Pb > Hg > Cd > Cr > Zn > Cu > Ni (Fig. 5c and d). It is worth
noting that the oral HQs of As and Pb for adults were 4.27 and 1.80,
respectively, and those for children were 18.6 and 7.82, respectively
(Table S7). These values were greater than 1, indicating the po-
tential non-carcinogenic effects of As and Pb in the mine tailings.
Moreover, Ni and Cu had the least risk, accounting for less than
0.10% of the total non-carcinogenic risk.
3.4.2. Carcinogenic risk assessment
The results for carcinogenic risks are shown in Table 4 and Fig. 6.
Similar to nonecarcinogenic risk, the oral CR was much higher than
the results of dermal and inhalation (Table 3), demonstrating the
primary pathway for heavy metals exposure, namely oral ingestion.
In addition, each metal had a lower CR in adults than in children,
similar to the results of nonecarcinogenic risk.
The mean CR values of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb were
6.09  104, 7.12  105, 1.36  105, 1.54  104, 6.09  105, and
1.68  105, respectively, for adults; and 6.59  104, 7.72  105,
1.42  105, 1.64  104, 6.46  105, and 1.82  105, respectively,
for children. As shown in Fig. 6, except for the other four heavy
metals, the mean CR values of As and Cu were all higher than
1  104 for adults and children, which means higher and unac-
ceptable carcinogenic risk. The results revealed that As and Cu in
China’s lead-zinc mine tailings have relatively significant detri-
mental effects on human health.
4. Conclusions
In this work, the concentrations, contamination assessments,
spatial distributions, and health risk assessment of eight heavy
metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in China’s leadezinc mine
tailings were analyzed. On the basis of the contamination assess-
ment results, the mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and
X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al. Chemosphere xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. Contaminated level distribution of eight heavy metals in the examined mine tailings.

6
X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al. Chemosphere xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 4
Results of non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks of different pathways and elements.

Nonecarcinogenic hazard index Carcinogenic risk index

Mean for Adults Mean for Children Mean for Adults Mean for Children

Oral 6.31Eþ00 2.75Eþ01 8.98Ee04 9.76Ee04

Dermal 1.18Ee01 3.60Ee01 2.75Ee05 1.71Ee05
Inhalation 5.77Ee04 1.25Ee03 4.21Ee07 2.29Ee07
As 4.31Eþ00 1.87Eþ01 6.09Ee04 6.59Ee04
Cd 5.21Ee02 2.07Ee01 7.12Ee05 7.72Ee05
Cr 3.00Ee02 1.24Ee01 1.36Ee05 1.42Ee05
Cu 6.66Ee03 2.88Ee02 1.54Ee04 1.64Ee04
Hg 1.53Ee01 6.55Ee01 e e
Ni 5.34Ee03 2.30Ee02 6.09Ee05 6.46Ee05
Pb 1.85Eþ00 7.97Eþ00 1.68Ee05 1.82Ee05
Zn 2.34Ee02 1.01Ee01 e e
Total 6.43Eþ00 2.78Eþ01 8.61Ee04 9.97Ee04

Fig. 5. Contribution of various routes and different metals to HI.

Zn all exceeded the corresponding background values for soils.

Moreover, most of the leadezinc mine tailing areas contaminated
by heavy metals were located in the southern and eastern regions
of China. The health risk assessment revealed that oral ingestion
was the main exposure route of heavy metals in the mine tailings
and children were more vulnerable to adverse effects. For a single
metal, As and Pb presented relatively high non-carcinogenic risks,
and As and Cu presented unacceptable carcinogenic risks. In gen-
eral, this study provided a quantitative analysis that shows the
urgent necessity for the treatment of heavy metal pollution in
leadezinc tailings in China.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing

Fig. 6. Carcinogenic risk of different metals for adults and children. financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
7
X. Kan, Y. Dong, L. Feng et al.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China (2018YFC1801704).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128909.
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