Source identification and health risk assessment of metals in urban soils around the Tanggu chemical industrial district, Tianjin, China

- Concentrations of heavy metals were measured in soils from Tanggu.
- The heavy metal spatial distributions were associated with chemical manufacturing.
- Heavy metal pollution sources were identified using PCA and RDA.
- Soil properties played a major role in the heavy metal distributions.
- Non-cancer health risks from heavy metals were assessed for children and adults.

We conducted an investigation to identify the sources of metals in urban surface soils, and to assess the associated human health risks, around the Tanggu chemical industrial district, Tianjin, China. The metal concentrations and spatial distributions in 70 soil samples from the study area were determined. Pollution sources were identified using multivariate statistical analysis. They mainly attributed Cu, Pb, and Zn pollution to vehicular traffic and industrial discharges, Cd pollution to industrial activities and anthropogenic waste including industrial discharges, sewage sludge, and municipal solid waste, As and Hg pollution to coal combustion and point source emissions from the chemical industry, and Cr and Ni pollution to the soil parent material. Soil properties, particularly the organic matter content, were found to be important factors in the distribution and composition of metals. A health risk assessment showed that samples from the northwestern and southeastern parts of the study area may pose significant health risks to the population.