Appraisal of probabilistic levels of toxic metals and health risk in cultivated and marketed vegetables in urban and peri-urban areas of Delhi, India

Sandeep Kumar; Shiv Prasad; Manoj Shrivastava; Arti Bhatia; Sadikul Islam; Krishna Kumar Yadav; Sushil Kumar Kharia; Anchal Dass; Neha Gupta; Sunita Yadav; Marina M S Cabral-Pinto

doi:10.1016/j.etap.2022.103863

Appraisal of probabilistic levels of toxic metals and health risk in cultivated and marketed vegetables in urban and peri-urban areas of Delhi, India

Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 2022 May:92:103863. doi: 10.1016/j.etap.2022.103863. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Environment Science, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India. Electronic address: sandeepk@iari.res.in.
² Division of Environment Science, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India. Electronic address: shiv_drprasad@yahoo.co.in.
³ Division of Environment Science, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India.
⁴ ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248195, India.
⁵ Faculty of Science and Technology, Madhyanchal Professional University, Ratibad, Bhopal 462044, India.
⁶ College of Agriculture, SKRAU, Bikaner, Rajasthan 334006, India.
⁷ Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India.
⁸ Institute of Environment and Development Studies, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi 284128, India.
⁹ Geobiotec Research Centre, Department of Geosciences, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.

PMID: 35421594
DOI: 10.1016/j.etap.2022.103863

Abstract

A total of six vegetables (S. tuberosum, D. carota, S. lycopersicum, A. esculentus, S. oleracea and B. juncea) were analysed for five heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb) to evaluate the contamination load in vegetables collected from five cultivated and two market sites (n = 504) at Delhi, India. The irrigation water samples and soil samples (n = 180) were only collected from cultivated sites. The results showed that the concentration of heavy metals in soil and water samples were well below the permissible level except for Cd 0.001-0.013 µg g^-1. Similarly, the concentration of Cd (>0.20 µg g^-1) was detected higher in all investigated vegetables except for tomato. The evaluation index value was highest for spinach and lowest for tomato. The transfer factor values and metal pollution index was maximum in spinach and okra. Principal component analysis (PCA), Tukey's HSD (Honestly Significant Difference) test, and one-way and two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) were also applied to statistically analyse the results.

Keywords: Contamination; Evaluation index; Heavy metals; Metal pollution index; Transfer factor; Vegetables.

MeSH terms

Cadmium / analysis
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Food Contamination / analysis
India
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Risk Assessment
Soil
Soil Pollutants* / analysis
Soil Pollutants* / toxicity
Spinacia oleracea
Vegetables
Water

Substances

Metals, Heavy
Soil
Soil Pollutants
Cadmium
Water