Source identification and risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in surface soil of townships in the northwest Hebei region

Source identification and risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in surface soil of townships in the northwest Hebei region | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Source identification and risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in surface soil of townships in the northwest Hebei region Zhanbin Wang, Daokun Chen, Xinbin Li, Ke Yang, Dongxiang Jiang, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7595488/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Soil environmental quality in townships is related to the development of rural revitalization and the smooth flow of urban-rural integration and development. However, the quality of soil environment in townships may be exposed to potential risks of potentially toxic elements pollution due to the influence of production and life. Thus, this study is based on descriptive statistical analysis, source identification, and systematic assessment of ecological and human health risks. The results showed that the mean content of eight potentially toxic elements in the study area was lower than the background value of the soil environment in Hebei Province only for the elements As, Pb, Zn and Hg, and the exceeding rate of Cr, Cu, Cd and Ni was higher than 55%. APCS-MLR model identified five categories of pollution sources with the following sources and contributions: industrial sources (47.1%), transportation sources (24.3%), natural sources (13.8%), agricultural sources (3.8%), and atmospheric deposition sources (11.0%). Ecological risks are mainly attributed to Cd and Hg, with high-risk areas concentrated in the central part of the study area. Probabilistic health risks indicate that adult and pediatric THI values are within the safe range at the 95% confidence interval and that children have some significant carcinogenic risk. Source contribution to health risk indicates that industrial and transportation sources are important sources of control for cancer risk, yet elemental As are less enriched, so there is no need to pay much attention to the impact of natural sources on health risk. In conclusion, this study provides a reference for risk prevention and potential source identification of potentially toxic elements in the top soil of the township. Biological sciences/Ecology Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Health sciences/Risk factors potentially toxic elements risk assessment source identification monte carlo simulation source contribution to health risk Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryData.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7595488","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":526116879,"identity":"698a9641-4564-4994-b661-f5b9e73c787a","order_by":0,"name":"Zhanbin Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xi’an Mineral Resources Survey, China Geological Survey","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhanbin","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":526116881,"identity":"4f0717e9-68f8-46a1-ab0d-094a90e42c98","order_by":1,"name":"Daokun 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region","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"potentially toxic elements, risk assessment, source identification, monte carlo simulation, source contribution to health risk","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7595488/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7595488/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eSoil environmental quality in townships is related to the development of rural revitalization and the smooth flow of urban-rural integration and development. However, the quality of soil environment in townships may be exposed to potential risks of potentially toxic elements pollution due to the influence of production and life. Thus, this study is based on descriptive statistical analysis, source identification, and systematic assessment of ecological and human health risks. The results showed that the mean content of eight potentially toxic elements in the study area was lower than the background value of the soil environment in Hebei Province only for the elements As, Pb, Zn and Hg, and the exceeding rate of Cr, Cu, Cd and Ni was higher than 55%. APCS-MLR model identified five categories of pollution sources with the following sources and contributions: industrial sources (47.1%), transportation sources (24.3%), natural sources (13.8%), agricultural sources (3.8%), and atmospheric deposition sources (11.0%). Ecological risks are mainly attributed to Cd and Hg, with high-risk areas concentrated in the central part of the study area. Probabilistic health risks indicate that adult and pediatric THI values are within the safe range at the 95% confidence interval and that children have some significant carcinogenic risk. Source contribution to health risk indicates that industrial and transportation sources are important sources of control for cancer risk, yet elemental As are less enriched, so there is no need to pay much attention to the impact of natural sources on health risk. In conclusion, this study provides a reference for risk prevention and potential source identification of potentially toxic elements in the top soil of the township.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Source identification and risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in surface soil of townships in the northwest Hebei region","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-08 03:06:25","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7595488/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"fac2b1ed-4864-4a3c-a73b-9691b87da9c9","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 8th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":55919498,"name":"Biological sciences/Ecology"},{"id":55919499,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology"},{"id":55919500,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences"},{"id":55919501,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences"},{"id":55919502,"name":"Health sciences/Risk factors"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-10-22T11:08:46+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-08 03:06:25","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7595488","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7595488","identity":"rs-7595488","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}