Non-Carcinogenic Baseline Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Taihu Lake Basin, China

The aim of this study was to investigate the contamination levels of heavy metals and to develop the baseline risk to health effects within the source areas of drinking water in Taihu Lake Basin (TLB), an area undergoing population and economic growth. Samples of water were collected from 12 representative drinking water supply areas of TLB, and were analyzed for seven heavy metals. The Hazard Indexes (HIs) for all oral exposure to the seven metals ranged from 0.03 to 0.08, which was less than the acceptable non-cancer human health hazard index of 1. As and Fe together contributed more than 98% of the overall HI, which suggests that future monitoring of water quality for these two metals should be considered.