Risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in soils and vegetables around coal-fired thermal power plant: a case study of Dhanbad, India

The present study was intended to determine the potentially toxic elements (PTEs) concentration in fly ash (FA), soil, plant, and vegetable to assess the impacts of pollution on the nearby areas of coal-fired thermal power plant (TPP). The PTEs concentrations (mg/kg) in FA were Cr (48-74) > Pb (41-65) > Cd (7.4-9.7) > As (3.19-4.43) > Hg (0.518-0.598). The contamination factor (C-f) for Cd was highest in agricultural soil (C-f= 22) followed by roadside soil (C-f= 20), and forest soil (C-f= 15), which showed that the soil was strongly polluted due to the presence of Cd. The ecological risk index (ERI) in the topsoil of roadside area was also very high (1130), due to the high value of ecological risk factor of Cd (898) and Hg (213). The health risk associated with the intake of soil containing PTEs were also estimated by calculating hazard index (HI), and the values showed that the risk posed to children was minimum (HI < 1). But in case of roadside area, the HI was very close to one (0.975) indicating that the prolong exposure may pose severe health risk. The bioaccumulation coefficient of all PTEs forAlbizia lebbeckandMadhuca longifoliawere < 1, indicating less PTEs accumulation in the plant species. The hazard quotient of all PTEs (except of Hg) through vegetable consumption (Allium cepaandRaphanus sativus) was > 1, which signifies that the long-time consumption of contaminated vegetables may cause severe risk to the people.