Assessing The Health Risk of Some Trace Metals Contents in Vegetables Sold in Local Markets of Tehran-Iran

Contaminations of vegetables from local markets in Tehran city with lead, cadmium, chromium, copper and zinc; the subsequent human exposure risks were determined. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (wet digestion) was used for the analysis. In four months of four seasons, May, August, November 2011 and February 2012, thirteen vegetable forms and crops were purchased randomly from local markets in Tehran, Iran. The concentrations of metals (mg/kg dry weight) in vegetable ranged from 0.9-9.3 for Pb, 1.0-2.1 for Cd, 0.11-12.11 for Cr, 11.1-59.1 for Cu and 41.51-1070 for Zn,. The results of the study indicated that lead, cadmium, chromium were present at concentrations above the permissible levels in vegetables, while the copper were present at levels below the permissible levels. The present study showed that the contributions of these vegetables to daily intake of Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu and Zn were 21.7%, 42.5%, 161.7%, 8.3% and 6.4% of PTDIs, respectively. It can be suggested that the consumption of these contaminated vegetables does not pose a health risk for the consumers as the values obtained are below the FAO/WHO limits, but the vegetables is not alone source of dietary heavy metals. Therefore, certain group of consumer such as elderly with cardiovascular problems and kidney deficiency who may intake these food items for long term should be extra cautions as they are more susceptible to toxicities.