[Analysis of Priority Control Factors for Soil Heavy Metal Pollution in Villages Surrounding Historic Smelting Areas]

The soil of villages around a historical smelting area in Jiangxi Province was taken as the research object， and the contents of heavy metals As， Sb， Cu， Pb， Zn， Cr， Ni， and Cd were collected and determined in 40 soil samples； the pollution degree of heavy metals was evaluated using statistical methods； and the sources of heavy metals in the soil were determined using the positive matrix factorization （PMF）， coupled with the Monte Carlo simulation health risk assessment （HRA） model to quantitatively assess the health risks of different sources to human beings. It was also coupled with the HRA model of Monte Carlo simulation to quantitatively assess the health risks of different sources to human beings and determine the priority control factors. The results showed that the average contents of heavy metals were higher than the background values， except for Cu， Zn， and Pb. The ground accumulation index （I_geo） of As， Sb， Ni， and Cd reached the medium pollution level， while 60% of the samples were in the light pollution level in the pollution load index （PLI）. The PMF source analysis study identified three soil heavy metal pollution sources， including natural sources， smelting activities， and industrial activities， contributing 50.27%， 30.21%， and 19.52%， respectively. The Monte Carlo probabilistic HRA showed that the carcinogenic risk for all populations was in the acceptable range （1E-06≤TCR<1E-04）； the non-carcinogenic risk for adults was negligible （HI<1）， and the non-carcinogenic risk for children was at a high level （HI>1）. The proportion of children with non-carcinogenic risk exceeding the control value was 48.35%. Smelting activity was the largest contributor to carcinogenic risk （69.22%） and non-carcinogenic risk （55.77%）， and smelting activity was identified as a priority source of contamination for human health risk control， with As being the main target pollutant. The results of the study can provide a scientific basis for governmental departments to formulate soil pollution control strategies.