Assessment of ecological and human health risks of metals pollution in the urban soils under the influence of rapid urbanization

Urbanization has been resulted in a series of environmental problems, particularly in those countries going through rapid development, such as in China. To assess the risks of anthropogenic metals in the top soils that... [ view full abstract ]

Urbanization has been resulted in a series of environmental problems, particularly in those countries going through rapid development, such as in China. To assess the risks of anthropogenic metals in the top soils that resulted from urbanization, a case study was carried out in a coastal city of the southeastern China. The distribution characteristics and risks assessment of 88 top soils from different urbanization levels of urban villages, tourism region, commercial and residential region, traffic region, industrial region and 393 human hair samples from different profession, gender and age were analysed. Results indicated that urban sectorization had a significant impact on the total contents and effective components of metals in the top soils. Urbanization had more significant impact on Cr and Pb than Cd, Cu and Zn. In addition to the potential ecological risk of Cd in urban villages surface soils was medium, the rest were minor. Analogously, human health risks of metals were slight. Rapid urbanization is gradually narrowing the impact difference of metals among regions. It is worth noting that the widely attention and effective measures for environmental management of urban village soils are urgent need in the urban.