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Environmental and human health risk evaluation of heavy metals in ceramsites from municipal solid waste incineration fly ash

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Abstract

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) for power generation can reuse waste effectively, but it generates a large amount of fly ash enriched with heavy metals. If this fly ash cannot be treated properly, it can cause ecological damage and human health risk. According to the production of ceramsites from MSWI fly ash, an evaluation methodology is established, in which the influence of heavy metal stability on the environment is considered for the first time, and the health risks of heavy metals via different exposure pathways are distinguished. The results show that heavy metals in MSWI fly ash have moderate potential environmental risks to environment and have strong non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks both to children and adults. By contrast, heavy metals in ceramsites pose little risk to environment and human health. This paper explains some reasons of heavy metal content and leaching ratio change in ceramsite and also illustrates why stability is a concern through comparing the potential risk index method and the improved evaluation method. This evaluation system can be applied to different production processes of building materials using solid hazardous waste and provides a quantitative evaluation method for reducing environment and human health risks of heavy metals.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFC1908100), Natural Science Foundation of China (71974116) and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019MG009), Key R&D Project of Shandong Province (2018GSF122005, 2019RZE27013, 2019RKE27001) and Shandong Provincial Social Science Planning Research Project (20CGLJ13). The authors thank Professor Jon Kellett at The University of Adelaide for constructive suggestions and English improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Reducing Emissions from Coal Combustion, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan, 250061, China

    Yifei Shi, Yue Li, Xueliang Yuan, Qiao Ma & Qingsong Wang

  2. Jinan Ecology and Environment Monitoring Center of Shandong Province, 17199 Lvyou Road, Jinan, 250101, China

    Junhua Fu

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  1. Yifei Shi
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  2. Yue Li
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  3. Xueliang Yuan
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  4. Junhua Fu
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  5. Qiao Ma
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Correspondence to Xueliang Yuan.

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Shi, Y., Li, Y., Yuan, X. et al. Environmental and human health risk evaluation of heavy metals in ceramsites from municipal solid waste incineration fly ash. Environ Geochem Health 42, 3779–3794 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-020-00639-7

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