Health risk assessment of heavy metal pollution in groundwater of a karst basin,SW China

To investigate the presence of metal elements and assess their health risk for the populace in the Nandong Underground River Basin(NURB),we conducted an analysis of eleven common heavy metals in the water body.A Health risk assessment(HRA)model was employed to analyze 84 water samples from the NURB.The detection results revealed the following order of heavy metals concentrations:Fe>Al>Mn>Zn>As>Cd>Pb>Cr>Ni>Cu>Hg.Correlation analysis indicated a certain similarity in material source and migration transformation among these eleven metal elements.Our study identified that the health risks for local residents exposed to metal elements in the water of NURB primarily stem from carcinogenic risk(10^(−6)–10^(−4)a^(−1))through the drinking water pathway.Moreover,the health risk of heavy metal exposure for children through drinking water was notably higher than for adults.The maximum health risks of Cr in both underground and surface water exceeded the recommendation standard(5.0×10^(−5)a^(−1))from ICRP,surpassing the values recommended by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency,the Dutch Ministry of Construction and Environment and the British Royal Society(5.0×10^(−6)a^(−1)).The results of the health risk assessment indicate that Cr in the water of NURB is the primary source of carcinogenic risk for local residents,followed by Cd and As.Consequently,it is imperative to control these three carcinogenic metals when the water was used as drinking water resource.

Pollution pattern of underground river in karst area of the Southwest China

Investigation of groundwater pollution has been carried out on multiple typical karst underground river systems in recent years in order to reveal the characteristics and mechanism of underground river pollution. Through the summary of the survey results, five characteristics of underground river pollution have been revealed, including directionality, weak hysteresis, easier for reversibility, linear and intermittent(or seasonal); combining with karst geomorphic types, pollution sources(primordial, secondary pollution and compound), pollution ways and pollution receptors, three basic pollution patterns of the underground river were depicted: Recharge area pollution, runoff area pollution and discharge area pollution. At the same time, the study discloses the reality of the underground river pollution is the three basic patterns and their subgenera in combination with super imposition on the space and time. And from the angle of the hydrogeological model, the study expounds the process of underground river pollution. Finally, the study gives naming rules of pollution pattern of the underground river and sets up PISAB method of pattern recognition. The results provide scientific basis for pollution repair and management of underground river in the southwest karst region.

Distribution and Source of Organochlorine Pesticides in the Laolongdong Underground River Basin,China

The concentrations of organochlorine pesticides(OCPs) in the Laolongdong underground river basin in northern China were quantitatively analyzed using the gas chromatography-mass spectrometer(GC-MS).This study was to investigate the composition,distribution and source of OCPs in the waters.The concentrations of ∑OCPs ranged from 14.45 ng· L-1 to 307.92 ng· L-1 and the mean value is 79.42 ng· L-1.β-HCH and p,p '-DDT were the most abundant components in ∑HCHs and ∑DDTs,respectively.There are some differences among the temporal and spatial distributions of ∑OCPs in underground river basin,and the distributions of ∑HCHs and ∑DDTs were same with ∑OCPs.The sources of OCPs analysis indicated that HCHs mainly came from the input of lindane and DDTs was from the mixture input of newly technical DDTs and dicofol.