Assessing the combined risks of PAHs and metals in urban soils by urbanization indicators

We quantitatively describe the impacts of urbanization on the accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals (HMs) in urban soils as well as their health risks to residents. Residential building age, population density, road density, and distance from urban center were used as urbanization level indicators. Significant correlations were found between those urbanization indicators and the amounts of PAHs, Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn and As in residential soils. The exposure time of soils to urban air was the primary factor affecting soil pollution, followed by local road density and population density. Factor analysis suggested that 59.0% of the elevated pollutant concentrations were caused by citywide uniform deposition, and 15.3% were resulted from short-range deposition and/or non-combustion processes. The combined health risks posed by soil PAHs and HMs were aggravated with time and can be expressed as functions of residence age, road density, and other urbanization indicators.