Particulate matter in the cultivation area may contaminate leafy vegetables with heavy metals above safe levels in Korea

Kyungdeok Noh,Luc The Thi,Byoung Ryong Jeong

doi:10.1007/s11356-019-05825-4

Abstract

Among air pollutants, particulate matter (PM) has been identified as a major cause of environmental pollutants due to the advancement of industrial development and the generation of smaller particles. Particulate matter, in particular, is defined only by the size of particles and thus is not enough to study its composition yet. However, edible crops grown in contaminated atmospheres can be contaminated with heavy metals contained in particulate matter in the atmosphere, which can seriously damage food safety. In this study, we investigated the influence of the accumulation of particulate matter on leafy vegetables cultivated at areas with different levels of PM in atmosphere. Four districts of Gyeongsangnam-do were chosen to conduct this experiment: outdoor spaces of three respectively located in industrial, near-highway, and rural areas were considered, and research plant growth chambers at Gyeongsang National University were used as the control. After 3 weeks of cultivation in those conditions, the results showed that Pb in milligrams per kilogram of fresh weight (FW) was 0.383 in Chrysanthemum coronarium and 0.427 in Spinacia oleracea that were grown near the highway, which exceeded the 0.3 mg kg−1 FW standard set by the Republic of Korea, EU, and CODEX. However, when those vegetables were sufficiently washed with tap water, it was confirmed that the heavy metal content fell into the safety standard range.

Highlights

IntroductionAir pollution is one of the greatest risk factors of our times (Kim et al 2015b; Li et al 2016)
One of the key indicators of the “better life index” in OECD countries is the concentration of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) (Mizobuchi 2014)
The composition of PM varies depending on the region, and even if PM concentration on the surface appears similar, the components varied depending on the cause

Summary

Introduction

Air pollution is one of the greatest risk factors of our times (Kim et al 2015b; Li et al 2016). The concentration of PM2.5, designated by the World Health Organization as group 1 carcinogen, varies depending on the country and region (Han et al 2016; Jeevanandam et al 2018; Kim 2018; Jankowski et al 2019). Even with the same mass concentration depending on the composition of the PM (Lanzerstorfer 2017), the effect on the human body varies considerably (Mukherjee and Agrawal 2017). Common chemical constituents of PM include sulfates (Hotze et al 2010); nitrates; ammonium; other inorganic ions such as ions of Ca, Cl, K, Mg, and Na; organic and elemental carbon; crustal material; particle-bound water; metals

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion