[Characteristics, Health Risks, and Source Analysis of Heavy Metal Pollution in Surface Soil in Shanxian County]

Soil heavy metal （HM） pollution is a prominent global environmental problem. Understanding the risk characteristics and quantitative analysis of potential sources of soil HM pollution is of great significance for accurate prevention and control, scientific management, and safe utilization of soil resources. In the surface soil of Shanxian County, the contents of eight HMs, such as As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn, were collected and identified in 330 surface soil samples. The HM pollution degree was evaluated using the accumulation index and enrichment index. The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of HMs were evaluated using the health risk model designated by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The sources of HMs in topsoil were analyzed using correlation analysis, principal component analysis, cluster analysis, absolute principal component score-multiple linear regression （APCS-MLR）, and other qualitative and quantitative methods. The results showed that all eight HM elements in the surface soil samples were lower than the background values and the screening values of agricultural land soil pollution risk in Heze City. According to I_geo and EF evaluation, only approximately 5% of Hg samples were slightly polluted, and the other seven HMs were non-polluted or slightly polluted. The carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic risk of As for adults and children in surface soil were at tolerable levels, and the carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic risk of the other seven HMs for adults and children could be ignored. The main sources of Cd, Cu, Zn, Ni, and As in the surface soil were natural background sources； the main sources of Cr and Hg were agricultural breeding sources and industrial coal sources, respectively； and the main pollution sources of Pb included other unknown sources and natural background sources. The average contribution rates of natural background sources, agricultural breeding sources, industrial coal sources, and other unknown sources were 51.69%, 27.18%, 6.83%, and 14.31%, respectively, indicating that the main sources of heavy metals in the surface soil of Shanxian County were natural background sources, followed by agricultural breeding sources.