A human health risk assessment of rare earth elements in soil and vegetables from a mining area in Fujian Province, Southeast China

Contaminated food through dietary intake has become the main potential risk impacts on human health. This study investigated concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs) in soil, vegetables, human hair and blood, and assessed human health risk through vegetables consumption in the vicinity of a large-scale mining area located in Hetian Town of Changting County, Fujian Province, Southeast China. The results of the study included the following mean concentrations for total and bio-available REEs of 242.92±68.98 (135.85-327.56)μgg^-1 and 118.59±38.49 (57.89-158.96)μgg^-1 dry weight (dw) in agricultural soil, respectively, and total REEs of 3.58±5.28 (0.07-64.42)μgg^-1 dw in vegetable samples. Concentrations of total REEs in blood and hair collected from the local residents ranged from 424.76 to 1274.80μgL^-1 with an average of 689.74±254.25μgL^-1 and from 0.06 to 1.59μgg^-1 with an average of 0.48±0.59μgg^-1 of the study, respectively. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between REEs in blood and corresponding soil samples (R²=0.6556, p<0.05), however there was no correlation between REEs in hair and corresponding soils (p>0.05). Mean concentrations of REEs of 2.85 (0.59-10.24)μgL^-1 in well water from the local households was 53-fold than that in the drinking water of Fuzhou city (0.054μgL^-1). The health risk assessment indicated that vegetable consumption would not result in exceeding the safe values of estimate daily intake (EDI) REEs (100-110μgkg^-1d^-1) for adults and children, but attention should be paid to monitoring human beings health in such rare earth mining areas due to long-term exposure to high dose REEs from food consumptions.