Today's urban gardening focuses mainly on vegetable production and rarely includes fruit trees. Health effects of consuming urban crops are questioned due to high local pollution loads. Here, we determined cadmium and lead content in the edible parts of nuts, berries, pome, and stone fruits harvested from fruit trees and shrubs within inner city neighbourhoods of Berlin, Germany. We analysed how local settings at sampling sites shaped the trace metal content. We revealed significant differences in trace metal content depending on species, fruit type, local traffic, and parameters related to barriers between the sampling site and neighbouring roads. Higher overall traffic burden and proximity to roads increased whereas buildings or vegetation as barriers reduced trace metal content in the edible biomass. We demonstrate, that the consumption of non-vegetable fruits growing in inner city sites in Berlin does not pose a risk on human health as long as the fruits are thoroughly washed and it is provided that site pollutions and impacts are considered in garden concepts and guidelines.
Keywords: Agroforestry; Fruit trees; Trace metals; Traffic burden; Urban horticulture.
© 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc.