Soil and food plant contamination with heavy metals due to long-term wastewater irrigation, Beijing, China
Heavy metals can be gradually accumulated in the wastewater-irrigated soils, and lead to the contamination of food plants. Consumption of metal- contamlnated plants is the major food chain route for human exposure and poses health risks. In this study, results showed that the heavy metals including Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn, were significantly increased over the reference soils. Regarding the pollution load index, the results indicate that the wastewater- irrigated soils were moderately enriched with Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn, while strongly enriched with Cd. This study indicated that heavy metal concentrations in the plants grown in wastewater-irrigated soils were significantly higher (from P<0. 05 to P<0. 001) than reference soil grown plants. Heavy metal concentrations partially and/or totally exceeded the permissible limits set by State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in China, and World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, this study highlights the potential health risks associated with the consumption of contaminated food plants. However, the values of health risk index were <1, indicating a relative absence of health risks associated with the ingestion of contaminated vegetables.
health risks heavy metals soil contamination plant uptake wastewater irrigation
Sardar Khan Qing Cao Yong-Guan Zhu
Department of Soil Environmental Science, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Ac Department of Soil Environmental Science, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Ac
国际会议
第九届痕量元素生物地球化学国际会议(9th International Conference on the Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements)
北京
英文
617-618
2007-07-15（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）