Arsenic Contamination in Rice, Wheat, Pulses, and Vegetables: A Study in an Arsenic Affected Area of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Ganga-Meghna-Bramhaputra basin is one of the major arsenic-contaminated hotspot in the world. To assess the level of severity of arsenic contamination, concentrations of arsenic in irrigation water, soil, rice, wheat, common vegetables, and pulses, intensively cultivated and consumed by the people of highly arsenic affected Nadia district, West Bengal, India, were investigated. Results revealed that the arsenic-contaminated irrigation water (0.318-0.643 mg l -1 ) and soil (5.70-9.71 mg kg -1 ) considerably influenced in the accumulation of arsenic in rice, pulses, and vegetables in the study area. Arsenic concentrations of irrigation water samples were many folds higher than the WHO recommended permissible limit for drinking water (0.01 mg l -1 ) and FAO permissible limit for irrigation water (0.10 mg l -1 ). But, the levels of arsenic in soil were lower than the reported global average of 10.0 mg kg -1 and was much below the EU recommended maximum acceptable limit for agricultural soil (20.0 mg kg -1 ). The total arsenic concentrations in the studied samples ranged from <0.0003 to 1.02 mg kg -1 . The highest and lowest mean arsenic concentrations (milligrams per kilogram) were found in potato (0.654) and in turmeric (0.003), respectively. Higher mean arsenic concentrations (milligrams per kilogram) were observed in Boro rice grain (0.451), arum (0.407), amaranth (0.372), radish (0.344), Aman rice grain (0.334), lady's finger (0.301), cauliflower (0.293), and Brinjal (0.279). Apart from a few potato samples, arsenic concentrations in the studied crop samples, including rice grain samples were found not to exceed the food hygiene concentration limit (1.0 mg kg -1 ). Thus, the present study reveals that rice, wheat, vegetables, and pulses grown in the study area are safe for consumption, for now. But, the arsenic accumulation in the crops should be monitored periodically as the level of arsenic toxicity in the study area is increasing day by day.

Rhizosphere colonization and arsenic translocation in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) by arsenate reducing Alcaligenes sp. strain Dhal-L

“…Arsenic uptake achieved by sunflower in the present study indicates that the plant is not a suitable candidate for phyto-extraction purposes. Although the quantity of arsenic present in sunflower shoot is not comparable to that obtained in other studies by using hyper accumulating plants (Wei et al 2010), the results evidenced that the arsenic up taken by sunflower exceeded the limit reported for food crops (1 mg kg -1 ) (Bhattacharya et al 2010). This confirms the estimation made by Warren et al (2003) which states that crops grown in soil with more than 200 mg kg -1 arsenic cause food poisoning.…”

“…Although sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) has been proposed for phyto-extraction purposes because it uptakes relatively high concentrations of metals and can have high biomass yield (Marchiol et al 2007), literature is scarce about its ability to translocate arsenic. Arsenic uptaken by food crops should not exceed the limit of 1 mg kg -1 (Bhattacharya et al 2010) and health hazards for food poisoning might be present when crops grow in soils with arsenic content higher than 200 mg kg -1 (Warren et al 2003).…”

Effect of phosphorus on arsenic uptake and metabolism in rice cultivars differing in phosphorus use efficiency and response

“…The present study demonstrated that exposure to higher levels of As led to a decrease in biomass production for both shoot and root tissues of rice plants during the vegetative development stage, as was previously reported by others authors (Geng et al 2009, Bhattacharya et al 2010 (Figure 2). Overall, regardless the P level or As exposure, the cultivar IRGA 424 had higher values of root and shoot dry weight as well as total root length and number of root tips as compared to BR-IRGA 409; while IRGA 423 seems to be in an intermediate condition between the other two cultivars ( Figure 2, Figure 3).…”

Assessment of Arsenic Accumulation by Different Varieties of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Irrigated with Arsenic-contaminated Groundwater in West Bengal (India)

“…In vivo studies conducted in the study area revealed that different rice varieties have different potential in accumulating arsenic from the same arsenic-contaminated irrigation water and paddy field soil [8,9,10,11]. The induction of arsenic in human food chain through consumption of rice thus imposes community health risk in arsenic affected areas of West Bengal [12,13].…”