Dr. ZHUANG Ping from Soil Ecology Research Group at South China Botanical Garden, CAS, had published an article, titled “Health Risk from Heavy Metals via Consumption of Food Crops in the Vicinity of Dabaoshan Mine, South China”, which has been identified by SciVerse Scopus as the 25 most cited articles published in Science of the Total Environment since 2008 (Fig. 1, extracted from SciVerse Scopus). This paper was also the highest cited paper in all papers published by ISI Web of Knowledge from South China Botanical Garden since 2008 (Fig. 2, extracted from Web of Science).

This study was carried out to investigate the concentrations of heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd) in soils and food crops, and estimate the potential health risk of metals to humans via consumption of polluted food crops grown at four villages around the Dabaoshan Mine, South China. From the results of rice and vegetable samples measured in this study, they obtained better knowledge regarding the impact of the mining and smelting operation on the environment and the potential risk to human health. Results suggested that heavy metal contamination of food crops grown around Dabaoshan Mine posed a great health risk to the local population through consumption of rice and vegetables. Therefore, this critical environmental issue highlights an urgent need for a continuing effort to minimize or control metal contamination around mine area and has been attracting extensive attentions and continuous discussions from all over the world.

Zhuang P., Mcbride M.B., Xia H.P., Li N.Y., Li Z.A. 2009. Health risk from heavy metals via consumption of food crops in the vicinity of Dabaoshan mine, South China. Science of the Total Environment, 407: 1551-1561.