• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.56-66
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• 2016

Generally, the contribution of crop-intake pathway (CIP) is remarkable in human health assessment (HHA) of heavy metal contamination. Although the crop exposure concentrations (Cp) should directly be used for calculating the average daily dose (ADD) of CIP, the soil exposure concentration (Cs) multiplied by soil-crop bio-concentration factor (BCF) has frequently been used instead of using Cp values. Thus, the BCF values are significant in the HHA, and care should be taken to ensure the reasonable acquisition of BCF values. Meanwhile, the BCF values are known to be significantly affected by analytical methods. Nevertheless, they have been calculated from the concentrations of soil and crop analyzed by only one method: total digestion (aqua regia extraction). For this reason, this study was initiated to seek appropriate soil analysis methods for effective computation of the ADD of CIP. The concentrations of 5 metal contaminants (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn) in 127 soil samples obtained from 4 abandoned metal mine areas were analyzed by several methods including total digestion and partial digestions using 0.1/1 N HCl, 1M $NH_4NO_3$, 0.1 M $NaNO_3$, and 0.01M $CaCl_2$. The heavy metal concentrations in 127 crop samples (rice grains) were analyzed by total digestion as well. Using the concentrations of soils and crops, the BCF values of each contaminant were calculated according to the kind of soil extraction methods applied. Finally, the errors between Cp and $C_s{\times}BCF$ were computed to evaluate the relevance of each method. The results indicate that the partial extraction using 0.1 N and 1 N HCl was superior or equivalent to total digestion. In addition, the 0.1M $NaNO_3$ method combined with total digestion is recommended for improving the reliability of BCF values.