Abstract
Toxic elemental exposure through consumption of contaminated crops is becoming a serious concern for human health. Present study is based on the environment and health risk assessment of wastewater irrigated soil and crops in a semi-arid region Faisalabad, Pakistan. The concentrations of potentially toxic elements (Cu, Cr, Mn, Fe, Pb, Zn, Ni) were analysed by atomic absorption spectrometer in five different crops (Corn, rice, wheat, sugarcane and millet), while, their topsoil’s and multi targeted risks analysis were assessed. Results showed, the mean values of Pb and Zn were higher in crop than Food and Agriculture Organization guidelines for food additives and contaminants. A strong positive correlation was found among wastewater and crop’s toxic metals (r2 values in Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni and Cr were 0.913, 0.804, 0.752, 0.694, 0.587 respectively). Whereas, a strong correlation was also found among soil and wastewater lead (r2 = 0.639). The calculations of Nemerow Integrated Pollution Index (NIPI) showed the soil samples maximum pollution limit (NIPI > 3) and Potential Ecological Risk Index (PERI) was found to be higher than maximum limit (PERI > 600) for all samples. While, for non-carcinogenic risk, Hazard Index (HI) values in adult were near threshold (HI > 1) for all crop samples. In children, the HI values for Corn, Rice and Wheat were above threshold limit and for Sugarcane and Millet, these were near to threshold. Cancer risk values for Cr found higher than safe limit (1 × 10–6) in adult and children for crop samples. Crop irrigation by wastewater irrigation is a prominent alternative option for water scarce countries, however prior testing and treatment of such wastewater streams must be employed to minimize the adverse impacts on human health and environment.
Highlights
Toxic elemental exposure through consumption of contaminated crops is becoming a serious concern for human health
In Pakistan, wastewater has been frequently (26%) used in urban and peri-urban regions that are deprived of any clean of treated water sources and the untreated water is available at no cost it lowers the price of crop production by up to 60% i.e. in terms of fertilizers and pesticides etc.[8,9]
The values of zinc were higher than the permissible limit in sugarcane and millet samples while lead found higher in all crop samples
Summary
Toxic elemental exposure through consumption of contaminated crops is becoming a serious concern for human health. Whereas, unplanned and long-term irrigation via unsafe water decreases the soil bearing and absorbing capacity against heavy metals, and these can infiltrate and accumulate in the groundwater and surface water resources, from where they can be ingested by the plants and crops. Such heavy metals do present a different behaviour than other plant contaminants, as these are nondegradable in nature, which make them bio-accumulative i.e. via food chains, rendering them as a critical threat towards human health[14,15,16]. By wastewater irrigated soil and crops, so to provide a more holistic analysis to fill the existing data and information gaps
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