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In this study, a food survey was carried out with two purposes: (1) to investigate the levels of nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) in various vegetables randomly collected in supermarkets of La Rochelle and (2) to assess the potential health risk for consumers by estimating the daily intake (EDI) and the target hazard quotient (THQ) for each heavy metal.The concentrations of Ni, Cu, and Zn in selected foodstuffs were detected within the following ranges: (3.2-9.6), (25.2-104.7), and (10.8-75.6) mg/kg (DW), respectively. Results showed that metals are more likely to accumulate in fruit vegetables (8.8, 63.8 and 47.8 mg/kg DW for Ni, Cu, and Zn, respectively), followed by leafy vegetables (6.5, 60.9 and 42.6 mg/kg DW for Ni, Cu, and Zn, respectively) and finally root vegetables (5.4, 40.0 and 27.3 mg/kg DW for Ni, Cu, and Zn, respectively). The levels of the metals match with those reported for similar vegetables from some other parts of the world. For all foodstuffs, EDI and THQ were below the threshold values for Cu (EDI 11.30; THQ 0.283) and Zn (EDI 6.86; THQ 0.023), while they exceeded the thresholds for Ni (EDI 20.71; THQ 1.035), indicating an obvious health risk over a life time of exposure.

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In the present study, a modified duplex melting process was set up so as to be able to produce an EN-GJL-150 gray cast iron from a local manganese-rich pig iron. A descriptive statistics showed an average Mn and Si content in raw material such that: Mn % = 2.457±0.133 and Si % = 0.682±0.088. The demanganization process was run and monitored in a cascade of two industrial-scale furnaces: a rotary kiln and an electric arc furnace. The performed experiments indicated that: 1) the manganese content decreased from 2.45 % to 0.94 %, 2) the manganese oxidation obeys the first order kinetic model, 3) Brinell and Rockwell hardness’s decreased by 38.83% and 27.81% respectively, and 4) the produced cast iron has a pearlitic microstructure with a small fraction of ferrite (1 to 5%) in the matrix and traces of cementite. All results showed that the produced castings comply with the standards in force for EN-GJL-150 cast irons, similar to gray cast iron ASTM A48 Class 20.