Ouafae El Hamiani 1 Hicham El Khalil 1 Catherine Sirguey 2,3 Ahmed Ouhammou 4 Gabriel Bitton 5 Christophe Schwartz 2,3 Ali Boularbah 1 1 Laboratoire Aliments, Environnement et Santé, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Marrakech, Université Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Morocco 2 Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, Université de Lorraine, Vandœuvre- lès-Nancy, France 3 Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, INRA, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France 4 Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Département de Biologie, Université Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Morocco 5 Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Research Article Metal Concentrations in Plants from Mining Areas in South Morocco: Health Risks Assessment of Consumption of Edible and Aromatic Plants The metals uptake by plants crops grown on garden soils surrounding three mining areas in South Morocco and the assessment of the potential health risk associated with human consumption of edible crops collected were investigated. Results indicated that high metal concentration of Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, and Ni in aerial parts of the aromatic plants and vegetables from mines A and B exceed the usual values reported in literature. The values of daily intake of metals (DIM) lower than oral reference dose (RfD) and health risk index <1, indicating that the consumption of edible and aromatic plants grown in garden soils is relatively free of risks. However, consumption of the plants from mine A represents an average of 1% of RfD for Mn. This value is relatively important and remains high as compared to contribution of other food sources. The prevention of environmental risks associated with gardening in urban and industrial areas is necessary and essential to propose recommendations both to gardeners and to decision-makers. Keywords: Daily intake of metals; Garden soils; Health risk index; Heavy metal; Plant uptake Received: April 26, 2013; revised: August 25, 2013; accepted: September 18, 2013 DOI: 10.1002/clen.201300318 1 Introduction Heavy metal contamination of agricultural soils is of increasing concern because of food safety issues, potential health risks, and detrimental effects on terrestrial ecosystems [1–3]. Growing plants for food or feed on contaminated soil can potentially lead to assimilation and accumulation of trace metals in edible parts of plants constituting a risk to human and animal health [4–7]. The metal accumulation in crops may be due to absorption of heavy metals from contaminated soil by plant root systems and/or following the direct deposition of airborne metal contaminants on plant surfaces [3]. Numerous studies have shown that plants grown in contaminated soils accumulate high concentrations of metallic elements in their tissues [8–13]. Heavy metals may enter the human body through inhalation of dust, consumption of contaminated drinking water, direct ingestion of soil, and consumption of plants grown on metal-contaminated soils [14, 15]. Vegetables constitute a major part of human diet since they contain carbohydrates, proteins, as well as vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients. It is known that serious systemic health problems are due to excessive accumulation of dietary heavy metals such as Cd, Cr, and Pb in the human body [16]. Consumption of food crops is considered as a major route for human exposure to heavy metals [11, 17, 18]. Heavy metal contamination is one of the serious problems in the vicinity of abandoned mine sites [3, 19, 20]. The accumulation of heavy metals in soils has been recognized as a pollution hazard for the environment. Large areas of cultivated, forest, or grazing lands have been degraded by mining and smelting activities around the world [2, 21– 23], which present a potential risk to biota biodiversity. Morocco has large areas covered by metalliferous wastes [3]. The metal contami- nation from mining sites of south Morocco was studied regarding their mobility and bioavailability, measured by plant growth experiments, selective chemical extraction, and biotests (e.g., MetPLATE TM ) [3, 19, 20]. Soil toxicity and plant metal contents were mainly due to high concentrations of bioavailable heavy metals in soils. Therefore, soil and tailing materials were important sources of available heavy metals for plant uptake and contamination of surface and/or groundwater resources [3, 19, 20]. Until now, only few studies have been undertaken to acquire information about plants in metalliferous sites in Morocco and there is no data available on the impact of mining activities on garden soils and edible vegetables grown in the affected areas. This study was conducted to investigate metal uptake by plant crops grown on garden soils surrounding three mining areas, to assess the potential health risk associated with human consumption of edible crops collected from the studied area and to evaluate the contribution of atmospheric deposition to the metal transfer to plants. 2 Materials and methods 2.1 Sites description The mining sites A (Mn-mine), B (Co–Ni-mine), and C (Cu-mine) are located in southern Morocco and were well described in previous works [3, 19, 20]. The climate in the sampling areas is semi-arid Correspondence: Professor A. Boularbah, Laboratoire Aliments, Environnement et Santé, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Marrakech, Université Cadi Ayyad, Boulevard Abdelkrim Khattabi, BP 549, 40000 Marrakech, Morocco E-mail: a.boularbah@uca.ma; aliboularbah@yahoo.fr Abbreviations: DIM, daily intake of metals; HRI, health risk index; RfD, oral reference dose; TF, soil-to-plant transfer factor 1 © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.clean-journal.com Clean – Soil, Air, Water 2014, 42 (9999), 1–9