Lead and cadmium in mushrooms from the vicinity of two large emission sources in Slovenia Samar Al Sayegh Petkovšek ⁎, Boštjan Pokorny ERICo Velenje, Ecological Research & Industrial Cooperation, Koroška 58, SI-3320 Velenje, Slovenia HIGHLIGHTS ► The Pb contents were higher in saprophytic fungi in comparison with mycorrhizal species. ► Mushrooms were collected in the vicinity of a lead smelter and a thermal power plant in Slovenia. ► Cd contents in several fungal species from the smelter were comparable or higher than in heavily polluted European areas. ► Pb and Cd contents of some mushrooms species may pose a significant health risk for humans. abstract article info Article history: Received 29 May 2012 Received in revised form 2 November 2012 Accepted 2 November 2012 Available online 18 December 2012 Keywords: Cadmium Lead Mushrooms Lead smelter Thermal power plant Human health risk Cd and Pb contents were determined in 699 samples of fruiting bodies of 55 mushrooms species, collected in the period 2000–2007 in the vicinity of the largest Slovenian thermal power plant (the Šalek Valley) and near an abandoned lead smelter (the Upper Meža Valley). The present study is the first regarding lead and cadmi- um in mushrooms from those exposed areas. Therefore, there was a significant lack of prior data. Among 55 studied mushroom species 36 species are edible and important from an ecotoxicological perspective. Howev- er, the remaining non-edible species are important for bioindication and allowed us to compare our results with other studies carried out in other polluted areas in Europe. The highest contents of Cd were found in Agaricus arvensis Schff.: Fr. (117 mg/kg dw) and Agaricus silvicola L.: Fr. (67.9 mg/kg dw), while the highest contents of Pb were found in Macrolepiota procera (Scop.) Singer (53.8 mg/kg dw) and Lycoperdon perlatum Pers. (50 mg/kg dw), respectively. Considering the high contents of both metals in fruiting bodies of edible fungi, together with FAO/WHO directives on tolerable levels of weekly intake of Pb/Cd by humans, it is evi- dent that consumption of some mushroom species originating from both study areas may pose a significant human health risk. A. arvensis Schff.: Fr., A. silvicola L.: Fr. and Cortinarius caperatus (Pers.) Fr. originating from the Šalek Valley, and Armillaria mellea Vahl. P. Kumm., Boletus edulis Bull., L. perlatum Pers., Leccinum versipelle (Fr. & Hök) Snell, and M. procera (Scop.) Singer originating from the Upper Meža Valley should not be con- sumed at all. Our findings are consistent with some other studies, which emphasized that mushrooms from heavily polluted areas, such as in the vicinity of smelters, accumulate extremely high amounts of metals, and should therefore be omitted from human consumption. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Fungi form an exceptionally diverse group of organisms, which are ubiquitous in nature and play an important role in forest ecosystems. They are directly involved in recycling energy and nutrients; further- more, they affect plant communities through mycorrhizal symbiosis (Newbound et al., 2010). Mycorrhiza acts as a temporal and spatial link- age between different constituents in a forest ecosystem and influences biodiversity, productivity and the stability of forest ecosystems (Read, 1998; Kraigher et al., 2007; Kraigher and Al Sayegh Petkovšek, 2011). Fungi are also an important component of food webs. Eighty percent of microarthropod species are fungivores. Additionally, both epigeous and hypogenous fruiting bodies are a seasonally important food source for wildlife, especially forest mammals (Bertolino et al., 2004; Pokorny et al., 2004a). Mushrooms are part of the human diet as well. The consumption of mushrooms has been increasing in many countries; especially in eastern and central Europe mushrooms have a high commercial value (Demirbas, 2000; Kalač and Svoboda, 2000; Alonso et al., 1999, 2003; Falandysz et al., 2007). For example, in Poland, the largest pro- ducer of wild mushrooms in Europe and the most important exporter of edible mushrooms, 3280 t of mushrooms were sold in 2001. In the Czech Republic, 7 kg of mushrooms (fresh weight) per family are con- sumed annually (Kalač, 2009), and in China an annual intake rate of wild grown mushrooms can locally even exceed 20–24 kg per capita Science of the Total Environment 443 (2013) 944–954 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +386 3 898 19 53; fax: +386 3 898 19 42. E-mail address: samar.petkovsek@erico.si (S.A.S. Petkovšek). 0048-9697/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.11.007 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv