Survey on Soil Cadmium Content in Guangxi Provinces in 2011-2013

Objectives To understand the pollution of cadmium in soil, in order to provide evidence and support for Guangxi government to formulate prevention measures.

Methods Soil samples were collected from the farmland in 580 administrative villages of 29 counties (districts) in 2011-2013, and the content of cadmium was detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (icp-ms).

Results The cadmium content in 1740 soil samples were in the range of 0.022~91.5 mg/kg, with an average value of 0.86 mg/kg, a median value of 0.32 mg/kg, a standard deviation of 3.47, and only 29.83% of the values were lower than the natural background (0.2 mg/kg). The exceeding rate of cadmium in soil samples was 49.94%;and the degree of pollution in polluted points were 18.18% in severe level, 14.73% in moderate level, 20.25% in light level and 46.84%in slight level.

Conclusions With a higher exceeding rate of cadmium pollution in soil, more detailed investigation in key areas should be carried out to identify the relationship between cadmium pollution and people's health.