Health risk of Hg, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu to the inhabitants around Huludao Zinc Plant in China via consumption of vegetables

Huludao Zinc Plant in Huludao City, China is the largest zinc smelting plant in Asia. Heavy metals have contaminated its neighboring environment seriously. We collected 20 vegetables and the corresponding soil samples from eight sampling plots near Huludao Zinc Plant to investigate health risk of Hg, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu to the inhabitants around Huludao Zinc Plant in China via consumption of vegetables. Transfer factor (TF) values of Hg, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu from soil to vegetable and the target hazard quotients (THQs) to the possible health risks to local population through the food chain transfer were calculated accordingly. TF values of heavy metals from soil to vegetable decrease in the order of Cd > Zn > Cu > Pb > Hg. These TF values of leaves are higher than other tissues. Daily intakes of Hg, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu through the consumption of vegetables are 1.322, 574.3, 301.4, 5263, and 292.5 μg, respectively, for adults, and 1.029, 446.8, 234.5, 4095, and 227.6 μg, respectively, for children around Huludao Zinc Plant. This would lead to potential health risk, especially for children, since Cd or Pb individual THQ is high than 1. The total metal THQs (TTHQs) due to consumption of vegetables for adult and child are 5.79–9.90, 7.6–13.0, respectively. Comparing TTHQs in the sampling plots of different distances to Huludao Zinc Plant, it indicate that the health risks to inhabitants close to Huludao Zinc Plant (< 500 m) is the highest, and at > 1000 m distance is relatively higher than in 500–1000 m distance. However, the inhabitants who lived in 500–1000 m distance to Huludao Zinc Plant is also experiencing the adverse health risk due to TTHQ being higher than 1.