Health risk assessment of heavy metals in soil of urban road, Quanzhou City

With the development of urbanization, the environmental quality of urban soil has been declining. Transport has become an important source of heavy metals in soil. To have a preliminary understanding of soil heavy metals pollution in the urban road, in this study, the contents of Cd, As, Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni and Cr in soil of urban road of Quanzhou City were analyzed and investigated to evaluate environmental quality based on health risk assessment model. The results showed that the soil of these urban roads has been polluted by heavy metals. Especially, the pollution of Zn and Cd was the most serious, has exceeded the secondary standard of the environmental quality standard for soils. The order of non-cancer hazard indexes of heavy metals in soil was As >; Pb >; Cr >; Cd >; Cu >; Ni >; Zn, and the order of carcinogen risks of heavy metals was As >; Cd. The non-cancer hazard indexes and carcinogen risks of heavy metals were both lower than their threshold values. They were not to be direct threats to people health.