Abstract
Health implications to the population due to the consumption of contaminated vegetables has been a great concern all over the world. In this study, the levels of heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Zn, Fe, Pb, As, Mn, Cu, Hg, Ni and Co) in soil and commonly consumed vegetables from Mojo area in central Ethiopia have been determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrophotometer (ICP-OES) and possible health risks due to the consumptions of the vegetables have also been estimated. The levels of As, Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu, Hg and Co were exceeded the reference level in agricultural soil. Likewise, As, Pb, Cd, Cr and Hg levels exceeded the recommended values in vegetable samples with concentrations ranging from 1.93-5.73, 3.63-7.56, 0.56-1.56, 1.49-4.63 and 3.43-4.23 mg/kg, respectively. It was observed that leafy vegetable (cabbage) has accumulated heavy metals to greater extent compared with tomato. The estimated daily intake (EDI) of toxic metals due to the consumption of the vegetables were below the maximum tolerable daily intake (MTDI). However, the total health quotient (THQ), calculated based on EDI of the heavy metals were found > 1 for As and Hg due to tomato consumption and for As, Hg and Co due to cabbage consumption, suggesting significant health risk. The health index (HI) due to the intake of toxic metals from the consumption of both vegetables were much > 1, with HI values of 7.205 and 15.078 due to tomato and cabbage consumption, respectively. This clearly suggests the possible adverse health effect to adult population from the consumption of tomato and cabbage from the study area. The total cancer risk (TCR) analysis have also revealed the potential adverse cancer risk induced by As, Cd, Hg, and Ni from the consumption of both tomato and cabbage as their TCR values were above the threshold level. Based on the results of this study, there would be a significant health risk (both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic) to the consumer associated with the consumption of cabbage and tomato being cultivated in Mojo area. Consequently, we recommend a strict regulatory control on the safety of vegetables originated from the study area.
Highlights
Environmental pollution by the heavy metals and associated food safety is a major global concern a days
Mekki and Sayadi [60] on the other hand have reported a much higher electrical conductivity (EC) values for soil samples saturated with phosphate processing wastewater
The result of our study has revealed that the levels of As, Pb, Cd, Cu, Hg and Co were found to exceed the recommended values in agricultural soil
Summary
Environmental pollution by the heavy metals and associated food safety is a major global concern a days. These metals can pose a serious health implication to all living things in general and humans in particular if accumulated in elevated concentration above body requirements as described by Gupta and Gupta [1]. Several scientific reports have identified heavy metals as significant contaminants of the vegetables being grown in and around urban areas all over the world [4, 8, 9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. This is a clear indication that vegetables being grown in and around urban and suburb areas are significantly susceptible to being contaminated with elevated amounts of heavy metals
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