<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" id="d8526621e99">The
lead-zinc areas of China have faced serious foulteousqulated heavy metal pollution.
In this study, data on As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn concentrations in China's
lead-zinc mine tailings were collected and screened from published literature (2015-2020).
The contamination assessments, geographical distributions, and health risk assessments
of the eight heavy metals were analyzed. The results revealed that the mean concentrations
of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn exceeded the corresponding background values
for soils. Moreover, most of the lead-zinc mine tailing areas contaminated by heavy
metals were located in the southern and eastern regions of China. The health risk
assessment results indicated that oral ingestion was the main exposure route of heavy
metals in the mine tailings, and children were more vulnerable to adverse effects.
For a single metal, As and Pb presented high non-carcinogenic risks, and As and Cu
presented the unacceptable carcinogenic risks. This study provides a timely analysis
proving the urgent necessity of the treatment of heavy metal pollution in lead-zinc
tailings in China.
</p>