Health risk analysis for the soil contaminated by antimony of a retired chemical plant

Based on comprehensive investigation of a retired chemical plant, by integrating the health risk assessment methods of USEPA, CCME and VROM, this paper gives a health risk analysis of the antimony contaminated soil in combination with amendatory parameters which were revised using the Chinese demographic characteristics and site features. The monitoring results indicate that 54% of the tested soil samples have exceeded the antimony risk screening value 31 mg/kg. The antimony pollutant mainly concentrated on the soil of 2 m and the maximum concentration reached 1262.7 mg/kg. Through the three exposure pathways: oral ingestion, dermal contact and breath inhalation, human health risks are calculated about the average concentration 93.1 mg/kg, 95% upper confidence limit 361.3 mg/kg and the extreme concentration 1262.7 mg/kg. The results show that the non-carcinogenic risks of antimony contaminated soil are 4.19, 16.26 and 56.7 respectively. According to the acceptable non-cancer hazard quotient which is 1, the repaired target of antimony contaminated soil is reckoned as 22.34 mg/kg, which is further corrected to 12 mg/kg after giving consideration to relevant soil environment standards and Chinese soil environmental background.