International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Article Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Tea Leaves and Potential Health Risk Assessment: A Case Study from Puan County, Guizhou Province, China Jian Zhang 1 ID , Ruidong Yang 1,*, Rong Chen 2, Yishu Peng 1, Xuefeng Wen 3 and Lei Gao 1 1 College of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +86-139-8431-1633 Received: 27 November 2017; Accepted: 10 January 2018; Published: 13 January 2018 Abstract: This study features a survey of the concentrations of aluminum (Al) and heavy metals (Mn, Pb, Cd, Hg, As, Cr, Ni, Cu, and Zn) in tea leaves and the corresponding cultivation soils (0–30 cm), carried out in Puan County (Guizhou Province, China). The average concentrations of Al, Mn, Pb, Cd, Hg, As, Cr, Ni, Cu, and Zn in the soil were 106 × 103, 214, 20.9, 0.09, 0.12, 17.5, 121, 27.8, 131.2, and 64 mg·kg−1, respectively. The heavy metals’ pollution indexes in the soil can be ranked as follows: Cu > Cr > Hg > As > Ni > Zn > Pb > Mn > Cd. The soil was moderately polluted by Cu because of the high geochemical background value of Cu in the area. The potential environment risk index (RI) showed that 7.69% out of the total sample sites were within the moderate level.