Dietary intake of pollutant aerosols via vegetables influenced by atmospheric deposition and wastewater irrigation Richa Pandey, Kumar Shubhashish n , Jitendra Pandey Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India article info Article history: Received 1 July 2011 Received in revised form 1 October 2011 Accepted 6 October 2011 Available online 22 October 2011 Keywords: Air accumulation factor Atmospheric deposition Health risk index Heavy metal Pollution load index Concentration factor Vegetable Wastewater irrigation abstract Pot culture experiments were conducted to study dietary intake of heavy metals via vegetables, spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), radish (Raphanus sativus L.) and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) grown under the influence of atmospheric deposition and wastewater irrigation. The results indicated substantial accumulation of heavy metals in vegetables, which contribute significantly to dietary intake of total heavy metals ranging from 1.34 to 110.40 mgg 1 through leaves (spinach), 1.04 to 105.86 mgg 1 through root (radish) and 0.608 to 82.19 mgg 1 through fruits (tomato). Concentration of Cd, Ni and Pb in vegetables exceeded the safe limits of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954. Health risk index for Cd and Pb exceeded the safe limits set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The study indicated that the atmospheric depositions as well as wastewater irrigation have significantly elevated the levels of heavy metals in dietary vegetables presenting a significant threat for the health of users. & 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Recent global attention has shown serious concern towards food chain associated health hazards resulting from environmen- tal release of toxic chemicals. The anthropogenic impact on the environment, especially in form of atmospheric pollution, is one of the important concerns throughout the world (Hindy and Farag, 1983; Raoof and Al-Shahhaf, 1992). Inhalation of atmo- spheric particulates and consumption of contaminated food-stuffs and drinking water are the most common routes of dietary heavy metal intake. Heavy metals rank high among the chief environ- mental contaminants with long-term health implications. Heavy metals are extremely persistent and readily accumulate in crops and dietary vegetables (Mapanda et al., 2007). Atmospheric deposition has been recognized as an important source of heavy metals for soils including agro-ecosystems (Azimi et al., 2004). People in India, with the highest number of vegetarians in the world constituting about 40 percent of the total population of the country, depend largely on vegetables for vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibers (Zarena and Udaya Shankar, 2009; Hermsdorff et al., 2010). Vegetables grown in urban-industrial areas accumulate high concentration of toxic metals originating from soil, water and air-borne sources (Chen et al., 2008; Singh and Agrawal, 2005; Pandey and Pandey, 2009a). Consumption of such contaminated food-stuffs may lead to serious health hazards including carcinogenesis-induced tumor promotion. Probably for this reason, safe agricultural produce and soil fertility stability have become the main focus of sustainable agriculture (Ramesh et al., 2005; Mahdavi, 2009). The uptake and accumulation of heavy metals in vegetables depend on physico-chemical properties of the deposited materials, soil processes and soil properties, interrelationship between plant and soil physical factors, kinetics of solublization of ions sorbed to the solid phase of the soil, mobilization of metals and the level of crop maturity, concentration of available heavy metals in soil, atmospheric deposits and irrigation water (Voutsa et al., 1996; Mazen, 2004). Use of wastewater for irrigation of vegetable crops has become a common practice in many countries of the world including India (Gupta et al., 2008; Singh et al., 2010). Some countries have recommended the wastewater irrigation for grain crops and those grown for industrial processing and fodder for slaughter stocks provided that certain standards are met (Mapanda et al., 2007). Wastewater contains toxic metals and crops and vegetables irrigated with such waters accumulate substantially high amount of such metals (Arora et al., 2008). Atmospheric deposition has now been identified as one of the principal sources of heavy metal contamina- tion to crops and vegetables grown in urban and industrial areas (Voutsa et al., 1996; Azimi et al., 2004; Pandey and Pandey, 2009b). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoenv Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 0147-6513/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2011.10.004 n Corresponding author. E-mail address: kshubhashish30@gmail.com (K. Shubhashish). Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 76 (2012) 200–208