Soil metal concentrations and toxicity: Associations with distances to industrial facilities and implications for human health

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 407; no. 7; pp. 2216 - 2223
• Main Authors: Aelion, C. Marjorie, Davis, Harley T., McDermott, Suzanne, Lawson, Andrew B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 15-03-2009; [Amsterdam; New York]: Elsevier Science; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Arsenic; Beryllium bronzes; Biological and medical sciences; Chemical and industrial products toxicology. Toxic occupational diseases; Child; Children; Chromium; Cities; Copper; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Databases, Factual; Delay; Developmental Disabilities - epidemiology; Environmental Monitoring; Epidemiological Monitoring; Health; Humans; Industrial Waste; Intellectual deficiency; Intellectual Disability - epidemiology; Lead (metal); Manganese; Medical sciences; Mental retardation anddevelopmental delay; Mercury; Metals - analysis; Metals - toxicity; Metals and various inorganic compounds; Nickel; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk; Rural areas; Rural surface soils; Soil (material); Soil contamination; Soil Pollutants - analysis; Soil Pollutants - toxicity; Toxicity; Toxicology; TRI facilities; Urban areas; Urban surface soils; Arsenic; Chromium; Mental retardation anddevelopmental delay; Urban surface soils; Rural surface soils; Soil contamination; TRI facilities; Human; Proximity; Toxicity; Developmental disorder; Urban area; Soil pollution; Mental retardation; Growth retardation; Heavy metal; Residential zone; Mental retardation and developmental delay; Health and environment; Intellectual deficiency; Rural area; Industrial area; Public health; Chemical contamination
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.11.033

Urban and rural areas may have different levels of environmental contamination and different potential sources of exposure. Many metals, i.e., arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg), have well-documented negative neurological effects, and the developing fetus and young children are particularly at risk. Using a database of mother and child pairs, three areas were identified: a rural area with no increased prevalence of mental retardation and developmental delay (MR/DD) (Area A), and a rural area (Area B) and an urban area (Area C) with significantly higher prevalence of MR/DD in children as compared to the state-wide average. Areas were mapped and surface soil samples were collected from nodes of a uniform grid. Samples were analyzed for As, barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), Pb, manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and Hg concentrations and for soil toxicity, and correlated to identify potential common sources. ArcGIS
® was used to determine distances between sample locations and industrial facilities, which were correlated with both metal concentrations and soil toxicity. Results indicated that all metal concentrations (except Be and Hg) in Area C were significantly greater than those in Areas A and B (
p
≤
0.0001) and that Area C had fewer correlations between metals suggesting more varied sources of metals than in rural areas. Area C also had a large number of facilities whose distances were significantly correlated with metals, particularly Cr (maximum
r
=
0.33;
p
=
0.0002), and with soil toxicity (maximum
r
=
0.25;
p
=
0.007) over a large spatial scale. Arsenic was not associated with distance to any facility and may have a different anthropogenic, or natural source. In contrast to Area C, both rural areas had lower concentrations of metals, lower soil toxicity, and a small number of facilities with significant associations between distance and soil metals.