Risk of cadmium, lead and zinc exposure from consumption of vegetables produced in areas with mining and smelting past

Abstract

The study reveals links between disturbed geochemical environment being the result of mining and smelting activities with consumers exposure to toxic and carcinogenic metallic trace elements (MTEs). This study focused on evaluation on vegetable and soil pollution in family allotment gardens (FAGs), considering in the aspects of consumer exposure to cadmium, lead and zinc. Study material consisted of 219 soil samples from FAGs located in one of the most polluted areas in Poland, and 64 samples of edible plants. Contents of analyzed MTEs in topsoil in the studied area were spatially diversified and depended primarily on the location of industrial pollution sources. The average content of cadmium (0.52 mg kg ⁻¹ fresh weight) and lead (0.57 mg kg ⁻¹ fresh weight) in vegetables exceeded maximum permissible concentrations according to the European Quality Standards. Human health risk assessment was based on three scenarios of dietary exposure to cadmium, lead and zinc. In every scenario the highest average daily dose for all three elements was estimated for potatoes which are one of the main components of Poles’ diet. Presented study showed that consumption of vegetables cultivated in FAGs located in Silesia Province may pose a significant health risk for their consumers.

Contributors

Małgorzata Ćwieląg-Drabek:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4219-9949

[e-mail]

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Sci Rep

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Sci Rep

Title: Scientific Reports

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2045-2322

Publication date (Electronic): 25 February 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 25 February 2020

Publication date Collection: 2020

Volume: 10

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2198 0923, GRID grid.411728.9, Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, , Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, ; 18 Piekarska Street, 41-902 Bytom, Poland

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2198 0923, GRID grid.411728.9, Students Scientific Circle at the Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, , Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, ; 18 Piekarska Street, 41-902 Bytom, Poland

Article

Publisher ID: 60386

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-60386-8

PMC ID: 7042296

PubMed ID: 32099081

SO-VID: 24165027-08d3-4ea3-b575-6e1c8c84c59b

Copyright statement: © The Author(s) 2020

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Funding

Funded by: FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/100007771, Śląski Uniwersytet Medyczny (Medical University of Silesia);

Award ID: KNW-1-099/N/9/Z

Award ID: KNW-1-099/N/9/Z

Award ID: KNW-1-099/N/9/Z

Award ID: KNW-1-099/N/9/Z

Award Recipient : Małgorzata Ćwieląg-Drabek Agata Piekut Klaudia Gut Mateusz Grabowski

Categories

Subject: Article

Custom metadata

issue-copyright-statement © The Author(s) 2020