Health risk assessment and source apportionment of metals and metal-like elements in drinking water of Lu'an City

Abstract

Abstract:

Objective To study the health risks of metal and metal-like（hereinafter referred to as “metal”） elements in drinking water in Lu'an City and analyze the potential pollution sources. Methods In 2024，drinking water samples of each quarter in Lu'an City were collected，including 311 factory water samples and 835 terminal water samples. Totally 21 metal elements in the drinking water were detected by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry（ICP-MS），and the descriptive statistics of the concentrations of metal elements in the drinking water of Lu'an City were conducted. The non-carcinogenic health risks of metal elements in drinking water were evaluated based on the risk assessment model in WS/T 777-2021“Technical Guidelines for Environmental Health Risk Assessment of Chemical Substances”. The possible pollution sources of metals in drinking water were identified by using the principal component analysis（PCA）. The contribution of pollution sources was quantitatively analyzed by using the absolute principal component score-multiple linear regression（APCS-MRL）. Results Except for a few samples where aluminium，iron，selenium，manganese and antimony exceeded the national drinking water hygiene limits，all the metal elements in the drinking water of Lu'an City were within the national drinking water hygiene limits. The non-carcinogenic health risks of the 13 metal elements in drinking water were all less than 1，which were 0.319 for adults and 0.257 for children respectively，and higher for adults than for children. The non-carcinogenic health risks of transdermal absorption were much lower than those of oral intake. The arsenic had the highest contribution rate to non-carcinogenic health risks，with contribution rates of 85.75% to adults and 84.57% to children，respectively. The source apportionment indicated that the possible pollution sources of metal elements in drinking water are natural pollution，industrial pollution，water plant pollution and agricultural pollution respectively，with contribution rates of 34.79%，15.82%，12.87% and 15.88% respectively. Conclusions The non-carcinogenic health risks of 13 metal elements in drinking water in Lu'an City are relatively low. Arsenic is the main pollutant of non-carcinogenic health risks of metal elements in drinking water. Natural pollution is the main source of metal elements in drinking water.

Key words: Drinking water, Metal element, Health risk, Source apportionment

CLC Number:

R123.1

ZENG Yong, LI Pengfei, YANG Yang, WANG Xu, YANG Linsheng, LYU Yong. Health risk assessment and source apportionment of metals and metal-like elements in drinking water of Lu'an City. [J]OCCUPATION AND HEALTH, 2026, 42(8): 1127-1131.

Figures/Tables 5

References 34

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人群分类	日均饮水量（L/d）	体质量（kg）	皮肤表面积（cm²）
成人	3.001	61.7	16 000
6岁儿童	0.994	25.9	9 700

人群分类	日均饮水量（L/d）	体质量（kg）	皮肤表面积（cm²）
成人	3.001	61.7	16 000
6岁儿童	0.994	25.9	9 700

元素	经口RfD[μg/（kg·d）]	来源	ABS_g（%）	来源
Al	1 000	ATSDR[23]	20	文献[12]
Fe	700	文献[12]	1.4	文献[12]
As	0.06	IRIS[24]	95	文献[12]
Zn	300	IRIS	20	文献[12]
Mn	140	IRIS	4	文献[12]
Ni	20	IRIS	4	文献[12]
Cu	40	文献[12]	57	文献[12]
Sr	600	IRIS	20	文献[12]
Ba	200	IRIS	7	文献[12]
Se	5	IRIS	100	文献[18]
B	200	IRIS	100	文献[18]
Mo	5	IRIS	—
Sb	0.4	IRIS	2	文献[20]

元素	经口RfD[μg/（kg·d）]	来源	ABS_g（%）	来源
Al	1 000	ATSDR[23]	20	文献[12]
Fe	700	文献[12]	1.4	文献[12]
As	0.06	IRIS[24]	95	文献[12]
Zn	300	IRIS	20	文献[12]
Mn	140	IRIS	4	文献[12]
Ni	20	IRIS	4	文献[12]
Cu	40	文献[12]	57	文献[12]
Sr	600	IRIS	20	文献[12]
Ba	200	IRIS	7	文献[12]
Se	5	IRIS	100	文献[18]
B	200	IRIS	100	文献[18]
Mo	5	IRIS	—
Sb	0.4	IRIS	2	文献[20]

元素	样品数（份）	检出数 [份（%）]	不合格数 [份（%）]	监测浓度范围（μg/L）	M（QR）（μg/L）	卫生限值（μg/L）
Li	1 146	922（80.45）		ND~21.40	2.33（3.04）	—
Be	1 146	473（41.27）	0（0.00）	ND~0.15	0.02（0.03）	2
Al	1 146	1 100（95.99）	74（6.46）	ND~2 158.37	34.07（57.98）	200
Fe	1 146	1 146（100.00）	3（0.26）	ND~827.39	13.08（17.16）	300
As	1 146	1 060（92.50）	0（0.00）	ND~4.89	0.35（0.36）	10
Se	1 146	664（57.94）	21（1.83）	ND~20.99	0.19（0.54）	10
Zn	1 146	904（78.88）	0（0.00）	ND~669.71	2.79（6.03）	1 000
B	1 146	803（70.07）	0（0.00）	ND~295.73	5.22（8.53）	1 000
Cr	1 146	484（42.23）	0（0.00）	ND~1.72	0.05（0.11）	50^a
Mn	1 146	1 077（93.98）	1（0.09）	ND~158.12	1.41（3.57）	100
Ni	1 146	913（79.67）	0（0.00）	ND~10.29	0.26（0.31）	20
Cu	1 146	1 099（95.90）	0（0.00）	ND~19.90	1.05（0.95）	1 000
Sr	1 146	1 146（100.00）		18.92~733.39	115.28（65.87）
Mo	1 146	1 143（99.74）	0（0.00）	ND~3.19	0.58（0.40）	70
Ag	872	231（26.49）	0（0.00）	ND~1.32	0.05（0.00）	50
Cd	1 146	204（17.80）	0（0.00）	ND~0.71	0.03（0.00）	5
Sb	1 146	665（58.03）	4（0.35）	ND~16.10	0.10（0.16）	5
Ba	1 146	1 146（100.00）	0（0.00）	6.19~200.29	34.64（24.73）	700
Hg	1 146	282（24.61）	0（0.00）	ND~0.32	0.04（0.00）	1
Pb	1 146	485（42.32）	0（0.00）	ND~2.79	0.04（0.08）	10
Tl	1 146	604（52.71）	0（0.09）	ND~0.09	0.01（0.03）	0.1