Bibliometric and visual analysis of heavy metal health risk assessment: development, hotspots and trends

Due to the widespread presence and harmfulness of heavy metals in the environment, scholars around the world have evaluated the exposure characteristics and health risks of heavy metals. To understand the status, hotspots, and development treads of heavy metal health risk assessment research, we used bibliometric analysis tools to conduct scientometric analysis of the literature related to the health risk assessment of heavy metals in the Web of Science database from 2000 to 2022. The analysis results indicate that research related to heavy metal health risk assessment is rapidly developing in both developed and developing countries. China’s significant international influence in this field is worth noting, as there are many publications and highly cited documents related to China. France and other developed countries also play an important role in this field due to their high centrality and strong bursts. The results of co-citation cluster analysis and keyword co-occurrence analysis indicate that in the past two decades, the primary research domains and hotspots of heavy metal health risk assessment have been the study of heavy metals in soil, dust, drinking water, vegetables, fish, and sediment. There is a specific focus on bioaccumulation, bioavailability, source apportionment, and spatial distribution of heavy metals. The main types of heavy metals studied are lead, cadmium, mercury, and zinc. The results of the bursts keywords analysis suggest that future research trends may focus more on the health risks of heavy metals in different functional areas of cities.