Effect of a Highway's Traffic on the Level of Lead and Cadmium in Fruits and Vegetables Grown Along the Roadsides

Abstract

Samples oj"&its (grapes, pomegranates, and tomatoes), and vegetables (onions, potatoes, and spinach) were collected directly from randomly selected commercial farms along the Tripoli-Zawiya major road, at the appropriate harvest seasons, during the period of May through November 1988. The objective was to determine the extent of contamination of the crops with toxic heavy metals, lead and cadmium, from trafic emissions. For the purpose of comparison, similar crops were collected, within the sameperiods,from farms in Waddy Al-Rabia, far away from any major road.lhe samples were dry-ashed, and analyzed using flameless Atomic Absorption Spectrophotorneter (AAS) .lhe statistical analyses of the experimental data showed that the major road contributed significantly (P < 0.05) to higher concentrations of lead in aLl the crops examined; and also cadmium in all the crops except in potatoes. Vegetable crops were found to have higher contents of these two metals than the fruits. Substantial amounts of these metals could be removed by washing the samples with triple distilled water.

Iron and Zinc Status in Soils, Water, and Plant Samples from a Densely Populated and Industrialized Region of Turkey

“…These results support the findings of Igwegbe et al (1992) that metal uptake by leafy vegetables is usually greater than that of tubers, legumes, and grains. This observation in turn supports the recommendation that fresh vegetables should be given to anemic patients who require iron supplements.…”

Monitoring of Heavy Metal Content in Fruits and Vegetables Collected from Production and Market Sites in the Misurata Area of Libya

“…Within the selected fruit, the highest concentrations of Pb were noticed in mangos followed by strawberries, watermelons, grapes, peaches, melons, apples, and oranges in decreasing concentrations, whereas in the vegetables studied the highest concentration of Pb was found in tomatoes followed by green peppers, spinach, carrots, onions, and potatoes. The higher levels of heavy metal contamination found in some fruit and vegetables could be closely related to the pollutants in irrigation water, farm soil, and pesticides or alternatively could be due to pollution from traffic on the the highways [18]. Comparison of the metal content in fruit and vegetables in some other parts of the world is shown in Table 4 and revealed that the levels are generally comparable in Libya and elsewhere.…”

Estimation of Heavy Metal in Vegetables From Different Market Sites of Tribal Based Ranchi City Through ICP-OES and to Assess Health Risk

“…The concentration levels of these three heavy metals (Pb, Cd and Ni) in vegetables were found to contain beyond than the permissible PFA limit. The high contamination found in vegetables might be closely related to the pollutants in irrigation water, farm soil or due to pollution from the highways traffic (Igwegbe et al, 1992;Qiu et al, 2000).…”