The qualities of agricultural soil and water are diminishing continuously due to the rigorous anthropogenic activities currently stocking the soil with a lot of toxic chemicals including heavy metals. Heavy metals are highly persistent and non-biodegradable, control of their contamination is very tricky to handle. Their presence in soil and water is detrimental to food crops and humans. Various sources of heavy metals contaminants and the role of urban food production on human heavy metal contamination were discussed.Heavy metals have their way into the soil and food crops through wastewater irrigation and production in contaminated soil. The habitual heavy metals contamination sources for food crops are wastewater irrigation, abuse of agrochemicals, production in the contaminated field, atmospheric deposit when foods are exposed to contaminated air, and unethical mining activities. Agricultural soil in urban and peri-urban areas are heavily contaminated with heavy metal due to various anthropogenic activities. Wastewater irrigation intensify the contamination by supplying the soil with more heavy metals. The heavy metals are passed to food during production and subsequently to humans after consumption.
Water is a vital resource for all kinds of lives. Heavy metals (HM) generally enter the aquatic environment through natural (atmospheric deposition, erosion of geological matrix) or anthropogenic activities caused by industrial effluent, domestic sewage, mining and agricultural wastes. Tanning generally requires using a heavy chemical that contains chromium, cadmium etc. It was observed that these industrial wastes are discharged, without proper treatment, into small waterways, which subsequently adjoin the rivers and dams. Using agricultural chemicals and fertilizers also contributes to the chemical contamination of the aquatic environment. Discharging untreated sewage into the waterways introduce pathogenic microorganism into the marine environment, among other reasons, which has drawn the attention of researchers to the possibility of having the aquatic organism edible by humans (mostly fish) be contaminated by heavy metals and microorganisms, which have been confirmed to cause short- and long-term health hazards. Fish, one of the primary aquatic organisms in the food chain, may often accumulate large amounts of metals, which can later intoxicate humans after consumption. Humans can also be intoxicated by directly consuming untreated water contaminated with heavy metals. This review focused on the aquatic contamination of different heavy metals in water and fish and also suggested some recommendations to minimize the marine environment's toxicity.
Agricultural soil is contaminated with dangerous heavy metals (HMs) from anthropogenic activities and natural processes. These HMs are passed to humans through the consumption of crops produced in the contaminated soil. Crop production in a contaminated field and irrigation with raw untreated sewage and industrial effluents exposed food crops to HM contaminations. Consumption of foods contaminated with HMs can be dangerous due to their persistent nature and tendency to accumulate in human tissues. HMs contamination in humans can lead to serious health problems and in severe cases can cause death. This review article aimed to compile soil treatment methods reported to be effective in reducing HMs uptake by food crops in active agricultural fields, outline research gaps and suggest areas for future research. Soil treatment with biochar is the most effective control method reported, was found to mitigate the uptake of Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn, and Cu in different crops. Other control measures are the application of inorganic sorbents, chelating agents, and nanomaterials to soil and hydroponic water, the use of microorganisms and their products, gene modification of the food crop, and soil washing and filtration. The control methods reported in soil and the hydroponic solution were found to significantly lower Cd, Pb, Ni, Zn, Cu, Co, Cr, Mn, Hg, and Fe uptake in cereal grains, different types of vegetable and tuber crops.
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