Heavy metal contaminations of soil in waste dumping and non-dumping sites in Khulna: Human health risk assessment

Potential toxic heavy metals are omnipresent in soil. Risk-based environmental management of soil refers to looking for the sources and exposure routes of heavy metals in human body associating with possible health risks of populace. The level of some heavy metals in waste dumping and non-dumping sites in Khulna was appraised. The soil pollution indices and health risks model were evaluated for the pollution status of soil and health risks among the local people, respectively. The prominent pollution was noticed in Koye Bazar dumping site due to the findings of higher value of geoaccumulation index (Igeo) (0.57), contamination factor (Cf) (2.22), and enrichment factor (EF) (2.52) for lead. The amount of iron in Mohammad Nagar dumpsite was estimated as 34397.00 mg kg−1, whilst the trace amount of Cr (0.39 mg kg−1) was analyzed in Koye bazar waste non-dumping site. The iron content in all dumping sites as well as lead in site-1 (S1) and site-3 (S3) exceeded the safe limit. Health risk indices model revealed that iron might exert the non-carcinogenic effects on both adults and child. But, chromium might have minimum carcinogenic risks (9.47E-07 in site-5) on adults. Besides, target cancer risks (TCR) value revealed that carcinogenic risks of cadmium for child and adults were ranged between 1.41E and 06 for adult in site-4 (S4) to 1.14E-05 for child in site-3 (S3). But, lead had no prominent carcinogenic effects on both child and adults.