Investigation of rare earth elements in drinking water of typical rare earth mining and non-mining areas in three provinces of China

Abstract

ObjectiveTo explore the concentrations of rare earth elements (Rare earth elements, REEs) in drinking water in rare earth mining and non-mining areas in Shandong, Guangdong, and Jiangxi provinces of China.MethodsTypical rare earth mining areas and 3 non-mining areas in the 3 provinces were selected for investigation. Drinking water of people in mining areas and non-mining areas were collected for 3 consecutive days by duplicate portion method. The contents of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Sc and Y in water samples were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).ResultsThe detection rate of each REEs in drinking water of mining and non-mining area was 12.98% to 86.64% and 1.07% to 69.04%, respectively. The average content of total REEs in drinking water in the mining area was 6.974 μg/L, with the maximum of 178.290 μg/L. The main elements were Ce, La, Nd, Y, Sc and Pr (≈90.0%). The average content of total REEs in drinking water in non-mining area was 0.772 μg/L, significantly lower than that in mining area (P0.05).ConclusionThe contents of REEs in drinking water of mining area are higher than that of non-mining areas. Risk assessment of REEs exposure by drinking water should be further carried out for residents in mining areas.

Keywords

• rare earth element
• rare earth mining area
• duplicate portion study
• drinking water