Urban soil and human health: a review

Abstract

SummaryRapid industrialization and urbanization during recent decades are having dramatic effects on urban soil properties and lead to large discharges of pollutants, which inevitably affect the health of the soil, ecosystems and human populations. This paper provides a systematic review of the relations between urban soil and human health. First, it summarizes the organic and inorganic pollutants in urban soil and their potential risks to human health. Second, the relations between urban greenbelt land, soil microbial diversity and human health are also explored. Third, we propose that future research should focus on the integration of assessments of health risks with exposure pathways and site characteristics. Bioavailability-based risk assessment frameworks for pollutants in urban soil can elucidate the complicated relations between urban soil, pollutant exposure and human health in cities. Finally, management of urban soil and policy should be strengthened in the future to maintain its sustainable development and utilization. More effort should be directed to understanding the relations between soil microbial diversity, green space and human health in cities.

Penicillium expansum strain isolated from indoor building material was able to grow on gypsum board and emitted guttation droplets containing chaetoglobosins and communesins A, B and D

“…The weakened immune tolerance reported from urban environments caused by depleted and poor outdoor microbial diversity (Moore 2015;Schuijs et al 2015;von Hertzen et al 2015;Haahtela et al 2015;Adams et al 2016;Mhuireach et al 2016;Stein et al 2016;Li et al 2018) may be attenuated by exposure to indoor microbes producing toxins inducing loss of tolerance (TILT ;Miller 1997;Genius 2010). We were tempted to speculate that the absence of a diverse protective microbiome in combination with exposure to microbial TILT may be a potential factor to contribute to the diverse indoor air-related Table 4 The airborne transit of mycotoxins contained in exudate droplets of Penicillium expansum RcP61 from the mycelial mass towards a cool surface in the experimental set-up shown in Fig.…”

Evidence for co-selection of antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements in metal polluted urban soils

“…Over half of the world's population currently lives in urban areas, and the urban population continues to grow (United Nations, 2014) suggesting increasingly important linkages between urban environmental quality and human health (Li et al, 2018). Due to rapid urbanization and intensive anthropogenic activity, a massive volume of potential selective agents (such as heavy metals) and microbes carrying ARGs swarm into urban soils and successfully persist, increasing the level of ARG pollution in urban environments (Wang et al, 2014).…”

Metal status in soils within a developing education park: Potential risk of land development

“…Due to continuous inputs from anthropogenic activities, the concentration of metals generally increased in both urban and rural soils, but their level in urban soils was usually higher and present for a long time than that in surrounding rural soils (Iwegbue & Martincigh, 2018;Li, Sun, Ren, Luo, & Zhu, 2018). Moreover, metal accumulation in urban soils could be affected by the urbanization duration and urban age (Wang, Liu, et al, 2018).…”