RESEARCH ARTICLE Evaluating the health risks of potentially toxic elements through wheat consumption in multi-industrial metropolis of Faisalabad, Pakistan Qumber Abbas 1,2 & Balal Yousaf 1,2 & Guijian Liu 1,2 & Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman 3 & Muhammad Ubaid Ali 1 & Mehr Ahmed Mujtaba Munir 1 & Syed Arif Hussain 3 Received: 15 July 2017 /Accepted: 21 September 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) pollution is the fastest growing concern around the entire globe especially in developing countries. Rapid industrialization and urbanization are the dominant sources of anthropogenic soil-food chain contamination with PTEs. The intent of current study was to investigate the interactive levels of Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in soil and their accumulation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) samples collected from 96 sites including industrial, urban, and peri-urban areas of a leading multi-industrialized center (Faisalabad) of Pakistan. According to results obtained from present study, non-carcinogenic (HQ) and life-time carcino- genic risks (CR) of the PTEs to the local inhabitants were estimated following the risk assessment modals proposed by the US-EPA. With respect to estimated HQ for chronic non- carcinogenic risk of Mn, Ni, and Pb, higher potential hazards were observed as compared to Cu, Fe, and Zn. Meanwhile, the carcinogenic risk of Ni marginally exceeded the limit described by US-EPA for adults. Overall, the health risks of PTEs with the consumption of wheat were lower than the limits described by US-EPA except for Ni. However, contin- uous consumption of this PTEs contaminated food may result the potential buildup of poisonousness and various disorders in humans. Therefore, long-term monitoring and gastrointes- tinal bio-accessibility studies are requisite for the safety of humans under such conditions. Keywords Potential toxic elements . Wheat consumption . Dietary exposure . Health risk assessment . Multi-industrial metropolis Introduction It has been accepted worldwide that soils act as a natural resource sustaining life in terrestrial environment. Its health has been deteriorating by several natural and anthropogenic activities. Potentially toxic elements (PTEs), natural and syn- thetic radionuclides, and organic compounds (persistent or- ganic pollutants, biocides, dioxins, toxins, halogenated hydro- carbons, petrochemicals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocar- bons) are the crucial environment contaminants (Domingo and Nadal 2009; Cao et al. 2010; US-EPA 2011; Tiwari et al. 2011; Yousaf et al. 2016a, b). According to previous published information, there are more than 10 million polluted sites in the world, of which more than 50% are PTEs contam- inated. USA, European countries, and China have 0.1 million, 0.08 million, and 1 million km 2 contaminated agricultural soils, respectively. From these contaminated sites > 70% of USA, ≥ 37% of EU, and > 80% of China are PTEs polluted soils. Globally, an economic loss of about US$10 billion per year has been estimated due to PTEs pollution (EEA 2007; EPMC, 2014; US-EPA 2014). Soil contamination/enrichment Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0311-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Guijian Liu lgj@ustc.edu.cn 1 CAS-Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People’ s Republic of China 2 State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710075, China 3 Soil, Water and Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan Environ Sci Pollut Res DOI 10.1007/s11356-017-0311-9