Abstract
Dietary consumption of contaminated vegetables is the main route of human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). However, there is a lack of research on PAHs in vegetables from northwest China. In this study, the concentrations, sources, and risk assessment of PAHs in the soil and vegetables of Urumqi, an urbanized city in **njiang, China, were investigated. The total concentrations of 16 PAHs in soil and vegetable samples ranged 10.58–77.20 and 93.7–1071.8 ng/g, with average values of 2.86 and 242.76 ng/g, respectively. Among vegetable samples, the concentrations were in the order: leafy vegetables (299.08 ng/g) > fruits (192.65 ng/g) > vegetable roots (152.05 ng/g). The source apportionment of PAHs was identified using positive matrix factorization. The primary sources of PAHs in soil samples are oil spills, traffic emissions, coal combustion, and coke combustion. The main sources of PAHs in vegetable samples are oil spills and burning of grass, wood, coal, and coke. In soil samples, the ecological risk caused by PAHs is at a safe level, and the incremental lifetime cancer risks (ILCRs) of ingestion exposure exceed 1.0 × 10–6, which will pose potential risks to human body. The ILCRs of vegetable samples revealed that all groups had potential risks from onion and cabbage consumption (ILCRs > 1.0 × 10–6). In particular, adult women had a higher risk of cancer (ILCRs > 1.0 × 10–4). These results emphasize the importance of combating PAHs pollution in vegetable bases.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledged financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 51968067 and 41762019], the Natural Science Foundation of **njiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China [Grant No. 2018D01C044], and State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse Foundation [Grant No. PCRRF19013].
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NA contributed to investigation, supervision, conceptualization, writing—review and editing, formal analysis, and funding acquisition. XC was involved in conducting the experiment, preliminary data analysis, and writing—original draft. AM contributed to investigation, assisted in sampling, and was involved in experiment guidance. YM was involved in writing—review and editing. NZ and NL assisted in the experiment. WC, QZ, and MP helped with the sample collection. The author confirms that the author group, corresponding author, and author order at the time of submission are correct and will not be changed later.
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Ailijiang, N., Cui, X., Mamat, A. et al. Levels, source apportionment, and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in vegetable bases of northwest China. Environ Geochem Health 45, 2549–2565 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01369-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01369-8