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Heavy Metals: Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Hazards and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2018) | Viewed by 23564

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Fei Li

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Guest Editor

Research Center for Environment and Health, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Interests: regression simulation of multi-media environmental pollution; intelligent management of regional environmental risks; environmental economic assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jie Liang

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Guest Editor

College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Interests: wetland ecological process; water and soil pollution restoration; environmental risk assessment and management; urban ecological planning and management; uncertainty quantification analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Hongtao Yi

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Guest Editor

John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Interests: policy networks; policy innovation and diffusion; energy policy; environmental policy; sustainable development management and decision-making
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Hua Zhang

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX 78412, USA
Interests: hydrology; water resources management; geospatial analysis; infrastructure resilience

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Heavy metals (HMs) have been regarded as a hazard to humans and the ecotope due to their toxicity, persistence, and biological accumulation for centuries. Risks to human health can be caused by heavy metal residues through a multi-pathway, owing to their transport and transformation among environmental multi-media, such as ambient air, soil, surface water, etc. Unfortunately, after long-term research, the present advances in human technology have not effectively reduced that risk. In fact, increased industrialization and urbanization of the developing world, the enhanced demand for resources, and the advent of new technologies have increased the risk of exposure to these substances. In recent decades, environmental risk assessment and sustainable management have been established as valuable tools to support national or regional quantitative regulatory systems and administrative decision making for HMs pollution. Historically, environmental health risk assessments have tended to narrowly focus on single heavy metals with indicators of their total content, usually emphasizing a specific human health endpoint and a particular exposure pathway for hypothetical receptors. However, it is obvious that multi-receptors in the real world are routinely exposed to HMs in environmental multimedia from multi-pathways. Furthermore, the exciting progress on studies regarding HMs’ bioavailability and combined effects, spatial analysis technology, uncertainty control method, exposure science, remediation techniques, etc., are possible to promote the current methods of environmental health risk assessment and sustainable management. Thus, this Special Issue will encourage and highlight new or improved approaches, models, and theories, which have either been applied or are under development, that move the field forward in assessing and managing the environmental health risks posed by HMs from multi-pathway exposure in environmental multimedia. Research papers, analytical reviews, case studies, conceptual framework, and policy-relevant articles are solicited. The Guest Editors will select high-quality research for blind peer review. Reviewers will be selected from researchers who are active in the field, and whose works are present in international databases.

Dr. Fei Li
Dr. Hongtao Yi
Dr. Jie Liang
Dr. Hua Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Heavy metals
Distribution, transportation and transformation
Enrichment and bioavailability
Multimedia, multi-pathway and multi-receptor
Human health risk assessment
Integrated environmental risk assessment
Pollution source analysis
Risk-based decisions
Sustainable risk management
Systematic uncertainty control

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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28 pages, 8517 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A 10-Year Statistical Analysis of Heavy Metals in River and Sediment in Hengyang Segment, Xiangjiang River Basin, China

by Jingwen Tang, Liyuan Chai, Huan Li, Zhihui Yang and Weichun Yang

Sustainability 2018, 10(4), 1057; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10041057 - 03 Apr 2018

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3304

Abstract

Heavy metal elements in water and surface sediments were characterized in Hengyang river segment in Xiangjiang River basin, one of China’s most important heavy metal control and treatment region. Data of heavy metal monitoring results in water and sediment for 10 years were acquired from an environmental monitoring program in the main channel of the studied area. Descriptive and exploratory statistical procedures were performed to reveal the characteristics of the sample distributions of heavy metal elements. The sample distributions of heavy metal elements were largely skewed right. Data censoring and too severe rounding in the water monitoring data were identified to have caused discretization in the sample distributions. Temporal and spatial characteristics of the data sets were addressed. The chromium (Cr) in the sediment possessed unique behavior, and this could be caused by a rapid deposition and releasing process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metals: Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management)

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12 pages, 1284 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Non-Competitive and Competitive Adsorption of Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ Ions onto SDS in Process of Micellar-Enhanced Ultrafiltration

by Xue Li, Songbao He, Chongling Feng, Yanke Zhu, Ya Pang, Juan Hou, Kun Luo and Xingsheng Liao

Sustainability 2018, 10(1), 92; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10010092 - 02 Jan 2018

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3287

Abstract

Competitive adsorption of Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in binary mixtures were investigated compared with non-competitive adsorption in the unitary metal solution in micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration at a temperature of 25 °C. Mutual interference effects were investigated based on the removal rate, the Langmuir Competitive Model (LCM) and equilibrium adsorption capacity ratios, q_e/q_m, which indicated the presence of other metal ions. The results indicated that the removal rate and adsorption capacity of Pb²⁺ were higher than that of the other metal ions in unitary and binary systems. The effects on SDS micelles for Cd-Pb and Zn-Pb combinations were found to be antagonistic. However, it was a favorable effect for the Cd-Zn combination, and the metal ions sorption followed the order: Pb²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Zn²⁺. The behavior of non-competitive and competitive adsorption for Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ in a single system and in the presence of Pb²⁺ were well described by LCM. Moreover, the LCM showed poor fitting to non-competitive and competitive adsorption of Pb²⁺ in a single solution and in the presence of Cd²⁺ or Zn²⁺. In conclusion, the removal of Pb²⁺ in the presence of Zn²⁺ or Cd²⁺ showed greater efficacy than that of Cd²⁺ or Zn²⁺ in the presence of Pb²⁺. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metals: Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management)

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4359 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Health Risk Assessment of Vegetables Grown on the Contaminated Soils in Daye City of Hubei Province, China

by Jun Yang, Fuhong Lv, Jingcheng Zhou, Yongwei Song and Fei Li

Sustainability 2017, 9(11), 2141; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su9112141 - 20 Nov 2017

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5803

Abstract

China is an agriculturally-producing country and the safety of its vegetables will have an extensive attention at home and abroad. Recently, contamination of soils and vegetables caused by mining activities is of great social concern because of the potential risk to human health, especially to the residents whom live near metal or metalloid mines. In this study, 18 topsoil and 141 vegetable samples were collected from the contaminated areas in Daye City Hubei Province, China and the concentrations of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) were analyzed. A self-designed questionnaire was assigned to obtain the exposure scenario and the USEPA health risk assessment model was adopted to assess two type of risks (non-carcinogenic risks and carcinogenic risks) of vegetables to humans. The results showed that the average contents of metal(loid)s in soils exceeded the background value of Daye City. The average contents of metal(loid)s, especially As, Cd, Pb, in three kinds of vegetables were significantly higher than the permissible values based on Chinese national standard. Leafy vegetables had relatively higher concentrations and the transfer factors of As (0.015), Cd (0.080) and Pb (0.003) were comparable to leguminous and fruit vegetables. Leguminous vegetables had relatively higher concentrations and transfer factors of Cu (0.032) and Zn (0.094) than leafy and fruit vegetables. The transfer factors from soil to plants follows a decreasing order as Cd (0.068), Zn (0.047) > Cu (0.023) > As (0.006), Pb (0.002). Furthermore, health risk assessment revealed the following results: the non-carcinogenic risk decreased in the order of children, adult, adolescent, while the carcinogenic risk followed a decreasing order of adult, adolescent, children; the calculated carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk of the metal(loid)s by vegetable consumption decreased in the order of leafy vegetables > fruit vegetables > leguminous vegetables. The relatively lower transfer factors and lower risks may suggest that leguminous and fruit vegetables are more suitable for planting in Daye City. Based on the contributions of five kinds of metal(loid)s from three types of vegetables, Cd and As are found to be the dominant sources of health risk. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metals: Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management)

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3182 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Measuring Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Metal Contaminations in a Network-Constrained Environment: A Case Study in River Network of Daye, China

by Zhensheng Wang and Ke Nie

Sustainability 2017, 9(6), 986; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su9060986 - 07 Jun 2017

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3930

Abstract

Measuring the spatial distribution of heavy metal contaminants is the basis of pollution evaluation and risk control. Considering the cost of soil sampling and analysis, spatial interpolation methods have been widely applied to estimate the heavy metal concentrations at unsampled locations. However, traditional spatial interpolation methods assume the sample sites can be located stochastically on a plane and the spatial association between sample locations is analyzed using Euclidean distances, which may lead to biased conclusions in some circumstances. This study aims to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of copper and lead contamination in river sediments of Daye using network spatial analysis methods. The results demonstrate that network inverse distance weighted interpolation methods are more accurate than planar interpolation methods. Furthermore, the method named local indicators of network-constrained clusters based on local Moran’ I statistic (ILINCS) is applied to explore the local spatial patterns of copper and lead pollution in river sediments, which is helpful for identifying the contaminated areas and assessing heavy metal pollution of Daye. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metals: Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management)

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Review

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24 pages, 2061 KiB

Open AccessReview

Spatial Characteristics, Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management of Heavy Metals and Metalloids in Soils from Central China

by Fei Li, Ying Cai and Jingdong Zhang

Sustainability 2018, 10(1), 91; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10010091 - 04 Jan 2018

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 6381

Abstract

The contents of seven toxic metals (Cu, Cr, Cd, Zn, Pb, Hg and As) in soils from Central China, including Henan Province, Hubei Province and Hunan Province, were collected from published papers from 2007 to 2017. The geoaccumulation index, health risk assessment model and statistics were adopted to study the spatial contamination pattern, to assess the human health risks and to identify the priority control pollutants. The concentrations of soil metals in Central China, especially Cd (1.31 mg/kg), Pb (44.43 mg/kg) and Hg (0.19 mg/kg), surpassed their corresponding background values, and the I_geo values of Cd and Hg varied the most, ranging from the unpolluted level to the extremely polluted level. The concentrations of toxic metals were higher in the southern and northern parts of Central China, contrasting to the lowest contents in the middle parts. For non-carcinogenic risk, the hazard index (HI) values for the children in Hubei Province (1.10) and Hunan Province (1.41) exceeded the safe level of one, with higher health risks to children than adults, and the hazard quotient (HQ) values of the three exposure pathways for both children and adults in Central China decreased in the following order: ingestion > dermal contact > inhalation. For carcinogenic risk (CR), the CR values for children in Hubei Province (2.55 × 10⁻⁴), Hunan Province (3.44 × 10⁻⁴) and Henan Province (1.69 × 10⁻⁴), and the CR for adults in Hubei Province (3.67 × 10⁻⁵), Hunan Province (4.92 × 10⁻⁵) and Henan Province (2.45 × 10⁻⁵) exceeded the unacceptable level (10⁻⁴) and acceptable level (10⁻⁶), respectively. Arsenic (As) appeared to be the main metalloid for both children and adults causing the high carcinogenic risk. For sustainable development in Central China, special attention should be paid to Cd, Hg, Cr, Pb and As, identified as the priority control soil metals. Importance should also be attached to public education, source control, and the remediation of the highly contaminated soils, especially in the areas where it can endanger the groundwater. Furthermore, it is necessary to appropriately adjust the industrial structure and cooperate more to form a complete economic zone. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metals: Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management)

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