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Toxics
Special Issues
Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements
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Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Toxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 12614

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Antoniadis Vasileios

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, Fytokou Street, 384 46, Volos, Greece
Interests: soil science; soil contamination; heavy metals; phytoremediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) often constitute a serious human health risk. In this Special Issue we invite contributions that will address related aspects, such as (a) assessing the bio-availability of PTEs deriving from soil and inorganic and organic amendments, as well as water and other environmental bodies; (b) studying the responses of plant species in soils with elevated PTE contents and their role as potential accumulators/excluders of PTEs; (c) exploring the various PTE contamination pathways from soil/water/air to humans and their potential associated risks; and (d) recognizing and discussing challenges related to soil/water contamination and their contribution to health risk assessment (HRA). Also contributions are expected to discuss possible problems and shortcomings of the USEPA-based HRA parameters, as well as PTE reference doses (RfDs) that may be outdated or not relevant to particular land uses or human activities; on this basis, contributions may suggest novel approaches to human HRA. Particularly welcome are contributions from diverse scientific backgrounds that would enhance interdisciplinary concerns and thus the novelty of the submitted papers, and would also lead to highly enriching the understanding of the readers. Human HRA of PTEs is a wide topic that bridges basic science to real life problems and this Special Issue is expected to receive a wide attention by the scientific community.

Dr. Antoniadis Vasileios
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Soil enrichment with PTEs
  • Contamination pathways
  • Risk assessment parameters
  • Soil- and water-deriving PTEs
  • Improved HRA approaches
  • PTE-laden airborne particles

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 1980 KiB  
Article
Monitoring Potentially Toxic Element Pollution in Three Wheat-Grown Areas with a Long History of Industrial Activity and Assessment of Their Effect on Human Health in Central Greece
by Georgios Thalassinos and Vasileios Antoniadis
Toxics 2021, 9(11), 293; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9110293 - 4 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2094
Abstract
Agricultural lands, especially those where wheat is cultivated, in the vicinity of intense anthropogenic activities may be laden with potentially toxic elements (PTEs), resulting in increased risk for human health. In this study we monitored three regions located in central Greece, currently cultivated [...] Read more.
Agricultural lands, especially those where wheat is cultivated, in the vicinity of intense anthropogenic activities may be laden with potentially toxic elements (PTEs), resulting in increased risk for human health. In this study we monitored three regions located in central Greece, currently cultivated with wheat: Domokos and Eretria, two areas with abandoned chromium mines, but never studied before, and the industrial area of Volos, near a major steel factory. All soils were alkaline with medium CaCO3 content. As expected, Cr was extremely high in the first two areas (705.2 in Eretria and 777.5 mg kg−1 in Domokos); Ni was also found elevated (1227 in Eretria, 1315 in Domokos and 257.6 mg kg−1 in the steel factory), while other harmful metals (Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn) were rather low. As a result, pollution load index, a cumulative index showing the contamination level of an area, was higher than 1.0 in all three areas (Eretria = 2.20, Domokos = 2.28, and steel factory = 1.61), indicating high contamination and anthropogenic inputs. As for the wheat parts (shoots and grains), they were found to have no elevated concentrations of any of the measured metals in all three study areas, probably due to the alkaline soil pH that decelerates metal mobility. This was also confirmed by the very low soil-to-plant transfer coefficient values for all metals. In assessing the possible risk concerning human health, we found that the soil-to-human pathway would induce no significant risk (exhibited by hazard index of less than 1.0), while the risk from grain-to-human resulted in considerable risk for human health in the steel factory of Volos (where HI > 1.0). Our findings suggest that rural areas never studied before with a history in some offensive anthropogenic activity can prove to be a contamination hotspot; we regard this study as a pivotal for similarly never-visited-before areas casually cultivated with wheat (or other important crops for human nutrition). We further recognize the need for a more in-depth study that would acknowledge the geochemical speciation of the studied metals and also monitor other important crops and their possible uptake of PTEs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements)
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14 pages, 305 KiB  
Article
Comparison of the Potential Ecological and Human Health Risks of Heavy Metals from Sewage Sludge and Livestock Manure for Agricultural Use
by Baoling Duan and Qiang Feng
Toxics 2021, 9(7), 145; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9070145 - 24 Jun 2021
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 2970
Abstract
Sewage sludge and livestock (chicken, swine and cattle) manure samples were collected from the Yanmenguan Cattle Herbivorous Livestock Area to compare the potential ecological and human health risks caused by heavy metals contained in them. In this study, the Class II level of [...] Read more.
Sewage sludge and livestock (chicken, swine and cattle) manure samples were collected from the Yanmenguan Cattle Herbivorous Livestock Area to compare the potential ecological and human health risks caused by heavy metals contained in them. In this study, the Class II level of Quality Control of Imported Organic Fertilizers is selected as the limit standard value of heavy metals. Based on the mean content values, no heavy metal in cattle manure was higher than the limit standard value; the content of Cu in swine manure was higher than the limit of Cu; the content of Zn in sewage sludge, chicken manure and swine manure were all higher than the limit of Zn; and the content of Cr in sewage sludge and chicken manure were all higher than the limit of Cr. Results indicated that sewage sludge and livestock manure all had high contents of Zn, Cu and Cr. The mean pollution index (PI) suggested that Cu, Zn, As and Cr in sewage sludge and livestock manures all induced potential ecological risks. According to the mean Nemerow’s synthetic pollution index (PN) values, swine manure had the highest potential ecological risk for agricultural use. Daily exposure to Cu, Zn and Cr was higher than other heavy metals from sewage sludge and livestock manures, and heavy metal exposure was always higher for children than adults, with ingestion as the main pathway. Non-carcinogenic risk was caused mainly by Cu and Cr, based on the higher hazard quotient (HQ) values for adults and children. There was no non-carcinogenic risk for all people, except exposure of Cu from swine manure for children, which was 1.76 times higher than the threshold value of 1. According to the mean hazard index (HI) values, only swine manure had a non-carcinogenic risk for children. As the carcinogenic risk index (Risk) values were continuously greater for As than Cd, As had a higher carcinogenic risk than Cd. There was no carcinogenic risk for any single heavy metal, although As exposure from sewage sludge was found to have an inapparent carcinogenic risk for both adults and children. Regarding the RISK value, sewage sludge had an unacceptable carcinogenic risk for adults and children, and swine manure had an unacceptable risk for children only. In general, for both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks, ingestion was the main pathway, and children were more sensitive than adults. Comparing the four kinds of organic waste, cattle manure was the safest for agricultural use in terms of ecological and human health risks. In multiple comparisons, swine manure was significantly different regarding potential ecological risk and non-carcinogenic risk, and sewage sludge was significantly different regarding carcinogenic risk. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements)

Review

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35 pages, 2987 KiB  
Review
Towards a Soil Remediation Strategy Using Biochar: Effects on Soil Chemical Properties and Bioavailability of Potentially Toxic Elements
by Fotis Bilias, Thomai Nikoli, Dimitrios Kalderis and Dionisios Gasparatos
Toxics 2021, 9(8), 184; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9080184 - 4 Aug 2021
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 6679
Abstract
Soil contamination with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is considered one of the most severe environmental threats, while among remediation strategies, research on the application of soil amendments has received important consideration. This review highlights the effects of biochar application on soil properties and [...] Read more.
Soil contamination with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is considered one of the most severe environmental threats, while among remediation strategies, research on the application of soil amendments has received important consideration. This review highlights the effects of biochar application on soil properties and the bioavailability of potentially toxic elements describing research areas of intense current and emerging activity. Using a visual scientometric analysis, our study shows that between 2019 and 2020, research sub-fields like earthworm activities and responses, greenhouse gass emissions, and low molecular weight organic acids have gained most of the attention when biochar was investigated for soil remediation purposes. Moreover, biomasses like rice straw, sewage sludge, and sawdust were found to be the most commonly used feedstocks for biochar production. The effect of biochar on soil chemistry and different mechanisms responsible for PTEs’ immobilization with biochar, are also briefly reported. Special attention is also given to specific PTEs most commonly found at contaminated soils, including Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Pb, Cd, and As, and therefore are more extensively revised in this paper. This review also addresses some of the issues in developing innovative methodologies for engineered biochars, introduced alongside some suggestions which intend to form a more focused soil remediation strategy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements)
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