干旱区研究

Arid Zone Research ›› 2018, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (5): 1057-1067.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2018.05.07

• Soil and Soil Remediation • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Pollution Load Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals Cr,Hg and As in the Jilantai Salt Lake Basin

ZHANG A-long1, GAO Rui-zhong1,2, ZHANG Sheng1,2, JIA De-bin1,2, DU Dan-dan1,2, QIN Zi-yuan1, WANG Xi-xi3   

  1. 1. College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering,Inner Mongolia agricultural university Hohhot 010018,Inner Mongolia,China;
    2. Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Water Resources Protection and Utilization,Hohhot 010018,Inner Mongolia,China;
    3. Old Dominion University,Norfolk,Virginia,USA 23529
  • Received:2018-03-29 Revised:2018-04-24 Online:2018-09-15 Published:2018-09-20

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Abstract: The Jilantai Salt Lake Basin in an arid area in northwest China was selected as the study area. The total 120 soil samples were collected from topsoil and soil layers of 50 cm and 100 cm in depth,and the purposes of the study were to test the contents of heavy metals Cr,Hg and As and the contents of main chemical components. The pollution and pollution load characteristics,health risk and spatial distribution of Cr,Hg and As were analyzed by mathematical statistics,Tomlinson pollution load index and US EPA health risk assessment model. The results indicated that:① The soil samples from the Jilantai Salt Lake Basin contained Cr,Hg and As. If the background values in Inner Mongolia were regarded as the standards,the contents of Cr,Hg and As were overweight in some areas,in which the contents of Hg and As were 60% higher than the background values. The difference of contents of Cr,Hg and As among different soil layers was not significant. Compared with the values in whole Inner Mongolia,the contents of Cr,Hg and As in soil in the salt lake basin were high,but they were within the national standards compared with the second standard values in the “Soil Environmental Quality Standard” (GB 15618-1995);② Based on the background values of Inner Mongolia,soil pollution load in the Jilantai Salt Lake Basin was holistically slight,and the moderate and serious soil pollution occurred mainly in the Tugligol Valley and low-mountain area in the southwest. The pollution load of different soil layers was in an order of -100 cm soil layer>topsoil layer>-50 cm soil layer,and that of heavy metals in all soil layers was CFAs>CFHg>CFCr; ③ There was no cancer risk from Cr,Hg and As in the salt lake basin except that from Cr and As along the Bayan Ul-Helan Mountain zone;④ The study results could be referred in exploiting and utilizing the soil and groundwater resources in the arid areas in northwest China.

Key words: soil heavy metal, health risk, pollution load, salt lake basin, Jilantai, arid area northwest China