Geochemical Patterns and Human Health Risks of Less-Regulated Metal(loid)s in Historical Urban and Industrial Topsoils from Alcalá de Henares, Spain

Nine technology-related metal(loid)s (Ag, Co, Fe, Mo, Pt, Rh, Sb, Se and Y) were monitored in 137 topsoil samples from urban parks, industrial areas and gardens in Alcalá de Henares (Spain) using ICP–MS. Selenium was not detected, while Mo, Sb and Rh showed a high proportion of values below the detection limit, indicating generally low contamination. In contrast, Fe, Co and Y were detected in all samples, with industrial soils showing about two-fold higher median Co and Fe than urban soils. Garden soils displayed marked silver enrichment (median 0.439 vs. 0.068 mg kg−1 in urban soils), with Ag pollution indices up to 71 and enrichment factors up to 69; around 17% of garden samples exceeded EF > 40, and more than one-quarter had EF > 10. Principal component analysis suggested a predominantly geogenic association for Co, Fe and Y and an anthropogenic component for Ag, Mo, Rh and Sb, while Pt was mainly linked to vehicular emissions. Under standard US EPA exposure scenarios applied to the 2001 topsoil concentrations, oral and inhalation hazard quotients for elements with available benchmarks remained