ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Water
Sec. Water and Human Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2025.1639009
This article is part of the Research TopicWater Pollution and Human HealthView all 7 articles
Distribution characteristics, source identification and health risk assessment of heavy metals in surface water and groundwater: A case study in mining-affected areas
Provisionally accepted
- 1Langfang Natural Resources Comprehensive Survey Center, China Geological Survey, Langfang, China
- 2Langfang Normal University, Langfang, China
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Heavy metals pose a significant threat on water environment and human health. However, mining activities play a critical role in releasing various heavy metals into the environment. The present study aimed to evaluate the distribution characteristics, source identification and health risk assessment of heavy metals in surface water and groundwater of Pingquan City (Hebei, China), which is a typical industrial city. Nineteen water quality indicators, including pH, strontium (Sr), arsenic (As), lithium (Li), zinc (Zn), barium (Ba), lead (Pb), aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), ferrum (Fe), cobalt (Co), selenium (Se), argentum (Ag), vanadium (V) and molybdenum (Mo) were selected, a total of 336 water samples of monitoring sites in Pingquan City were monitored, and the water quality were assessed, then the human health risks that residents possibly faced through ingestion and dermal pathways were assessed. The results showed that surface water in the Bao River Basin exhibited higher concentrations of Fe (107.71 μg/L) and As (1.37 μg/L) compared to those in other river basins. In contrast, groundwater in the Bao River Basin had significantly higher concentrations of Fe and Mn than those in other river basins, reaching 149.62 μg/L and 53.45 μg/L, respectively. According to the Water Quality Index (WQI) results, each river basin exhibits a WQI value below 50. Additionally, from a health risk assessment perspective, As in the study area does not pose health hazards exceeding acceptable risk levels in most exposure scenarios.
Keywords: heavy metals, Water Quality, Surface water, Groundwater, health risk assessment, Mining areas
Received: 01 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhang, Liu, Hu, Shi, Li, Song and Niu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
He Zhang, zhanghe@lfnu.edu.cn
Junjian Liu, liujunjian@mail.cgs.gov.cn
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