Residential metal contamination and potential health risks of exposure in adobe brick houses in Potosí, Bolivia.
Abstract
Potosí, Bolivia, is the site of centuries of historic and present-day mining of the
Cerro Rico, a mountain known for its rich polymetallic deposits, and was the site
of large-scale Colonial era silver refining operations. In this study, the concentrations
of several metal and metalloid elements were quantified in adobe brick, dirt floor,
and surface dust samples from 49 houses in Potosí. Median concentrations of total
mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and arsenic (As) were significantly greater than concentrations
measured in Sucre, Bolivia, a non-mining town, and exceeded US-based soil screening
levels. Adobe brick samples were further analyzed for bioaccessible concentrations
of trace elements using a simulated gastric fluid (GF) extraction. Median GF extractable
concentrations of Hg, As, and Pb were 0.085, 13.9, and 32.2% of the total element
concentration, respectively. Total and GF extractable concentrations of Hg, As, and
Pb were used to estimate exposure and potential health risks to children following
incidental ingestion of adobe brick particles. Risks were assessed using a range of
potential ingestion rates (50-1000mg/day). Overall, the results of the risk assessment
show that the majority of households sampled contained concentrations of bioaccessible
Pb and As, but not Hg, that represent a potential health risk. Even at the lowest
ingestion rate considered, the majority of households exceeded the risk threshold
for Pb, indicating that the concentrations of this metal are of particular concern.
To our knowledge, this is the first study to quantify key trace elements in building
materials in adobe brick houses and the results indicate that these houses are a potential
source of exposure to metals and metalloids in South American mining communities.
Additional studies are needed to fully characterize personal exposure and to understand
potential adverse health outcomes within the community.
Type
Journal articleSubject
HumansMetals
Soil Pollutants
Risk Assessment
Housing
Environmental Exposure
Environmental Monitoring
Construction Materials
Bolivia
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21242Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.152Publication Info
McEwen, Abigail R; Hsu-Kim, Heileen; Robins, Nicholas A; Hagan, Nicole A; Halabi,
Susan; Barras, Olivo; ... Vandenberg, John J (2016). Residential metal contamination and potential health risks of exposure in adobe brick
houses in Potosí, Bolivia. The Science of the total environment, 562. pp. 237-246. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.152. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21242.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Susan Halabi
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor
Design and analysis of clinical trials, statistical analysis of biomarker and high
dimensional data, development and validation of prognostic and predictive models.
Heileen Hsu-Kim
Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor Heileen (Helen) Hsu-Kim is an environmental engineer who specializes in
environmental aquatic chemistry and geochemistry. Her research tackles problems related
to pollutant metals and the biogeochemical processes that alter their distribution
in water, soil, and air. The applications of this work include environmental remediation
technologies, the impacts of energy production on water resources, global environmental
health, and the environmental implications and applications of nanotec
Daniel D. Richter
Professor in the Division of Earth and Climate Science
Richter’s research and teaching links soils with ecosystems and the wider environment,
most recently Earth scientists’ Critical Zone. He focuses on how humanity is transforming
Earth’s soils from natural to human-natural systems, specifically how land-uses alter
soil processes and properties on time scales of decades, centuries, and millennia.
Richter's book, Understanding Soil Change (Cambridge University Press), co-authored
with his former PhD
John Vandenberg
Adjunct Professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy
Dr. Vandenberg served as Director of the Health and Environmental Effects Assessment
Park Division of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, at the
US Environmental Protection Agency (retired, 2021). He has over 35 years of experience
in environmental health risk assessment and was responsible for leadership, planning
and oversight of EPA’s Integrated Science Assessments for the major (criteria) air
pollutants and Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessments
Alphabetical list of authors with Scholars@Duke profiles.

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