Environmental chemistry

Contamination

Risk assessment

Soil science

Soil water

Chemistry

Ecology

Heavy metals

Enrichment factor

Health risk assessment

Health risk

Computer security

Environmental science

Urbanization

Computer science

Pollution

Soil contamination

Medicine

Biology

Environmental health

Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Due to the rapid development of urbanization, the contamination of heavy metals in urban soils has become one of the major concerns of environmental and risk to humans. The main objective was to determine the contamination of six heavy metals in 25 urban soils and also to evaluate the associated health risk via diverse indices for adults and children. The mean concentration of Pb (47.48 mg/kg), Cr (43.24 mg/kg), Cu (40.64 mg/kg), Zn (34.68 mg/kg), Co (16.54 mg/kg), and Ni (7.55 mg/kg) exceeded the geochemical background values. Pb and Zn were closely attributed to traffic sources. Geo-accumulation index (Igeo) showed that Pb and Co in the soils were at the moderately pollution level, while 4% of soil samples were moderately polluted to heavily pollution levels by Cu. Enrichment factor (EF) showed that soils presented minor to severe anthropogenic pollution levels in the investigated region. The heavy metals to the non-carcinogenic risk of humans in the investigated region are absolutely from Cr and Pb, while the carcinogenic risk is controlled by Cr, and the remaining metals pose no possible risk to the local people. Specially, children had larger health risks in terms of non-carcinogenic risks than adults which may be related to their behavioral and physiological characteristics.

Spatial characteristics of heavy metal contamination and potential human health risk assessment of urban soils: A case study from an urban region of South India