Heavy Metals Accumulation in Vegetables Irrigated with Industrial Influents and Possible Impact of such Vegetables on Human Health

The practice of using highly polluted wastewater for irrigation by local farmers since long has contaminated the soil and now the pollution is being transferred to our food chain. An investigation has been done to ascertain toxic heavy metal concentration in the wastewater, irrigated soil, their accumulation in vegetables, and potential human health risks. The results reveal that Cr concentration in the wastewater, Cd and Zn in soil and in vegetables have been found well above the permissible limits of World Health Organization (WHO) which may lead to a detrimental effect on soil quality, leading to food contamination. The extractable concentration of metals viz Pb, Cr, Cd and Zn through ammonium bicarbonate diethylenetriaminpenta acetic acid (AB-DTPA) showed significant differences between the two studied localities. Linear regression analysis indicates that concentration of the heavy metal (Pb, Cr, Cd, Ni, Zn) in vegetables are significantly correlated at R² value of 0.956 at P≤0.001 with their extractable concentration in soil. Health risk index (HRI) has been found 1 for Pb in Abelmoschus esculentus while rest of the heavy metals have been noted less than 1 indicating relative absence of risk concerned with ingestion of adulterated vegetables. This study highlights that health risk assessment of this unhygienic practice is important to provide information about any serious threat to the health of the local population.