Contamination impact and human health risk assessment of heavy metals in surface soils from selected major mining areas in Ghana
| Autor: | Godwin A. Ayoko, David Kofi Essumang, Shiloh Osae, George Yaw Hadzi |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Soil test chemistry.chemical_element 010501 environmental sciences 01 natural sciences Ghana Risk Assessment Mass Spectrometry Mining Metal chemistry.chemical_compound Geochemistry and Petrology Limit of Detection Metals Heavy Environmental Chemistry Aqua regia Cluster Analysis Humans Soil Pollutants 0105 earth and related environmental sciences General Environmental Science Water Science and Technology Health risk assessment General Medicine Mercury Contamination Soil contamination Carcinogens Environmental Mercury (element) chemistry Environmental chemistry visual_art Soil water visual_art.visual_art_medium Environmental science Gold Environmental Monitoring |
| Zdroj: | Environmental geochemistry and health. 41(6) |
| ISSN: | 1573-2983 |
| Popis: | Analysis of soil samples around pristine and major gold-mining areas in Ghana was carried out for heavy metals as part of a larger soil contamination and metal background study. The surface soil samples were digested using microwave digester (aqua regia) and analyzed with ICP-MS for As, Cd, Hg, Zn, Co, Cu, Mn, Fe, Al, V, Cr, and Pb. The average concentrations (mg/L) for the metals ranged from 0.01 ± 0.01 (Cd) to 86,859.36 ± 47.07 (Fe) for the pristine sites, and 0.01 ± 0.01 (Cd) to 59,006.95 ± 79.06 (Fe) for the mining sites. Mercury was below the detection limit of the analytical instrument (0.029). The concentrations of heavy metals from this study were used to assess their contamination levels, and health risks. The results showed that, the metals ranked by severity of health risks as As > Pb > Cr > Cd. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis showed two groupings with the PCA showing metals variability explained by 79.02%. Results from the PCA and Cluster analysis indicate anthropogenic sources of the metals which may be emanating from gold-mining activities. Results from multi-criteria ranking and pattern recognition employing PROMETHEE and GAIA revealed major contribution of the metals from the mining sites with metal variability explained by 72.83%. This is the first time a multi-criteria approach is employed to characterize heavy metal contamination in Ghana, and the study nevertheless brought to light the impact of mining on human health and the environment with implications for other mineral areas around the globe. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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