Exploring the Potential Risk of Heavy Metal Pollution of Edible Cultivated Plants in Urban Gardening Contexts Using a Citizen Science Approach in the Project “Heavy Metal City-Zen”

Abstract

Urban gardening has become increasingly popular, creating green oases in cities; however, many of these activities are undertaken in areas of high traffic density or on ex-brown field sites. As a consequence, there are still some barriers to the adoption of these urban gardening practices for food production. One of the public concerns is the transfer of urban pollutants such as heavy metals into the consumer’s food chain, however, city-wide data is often difficult and expensive to collect. In the citizen science project described herein, we conducted simple citizen-led common collaborative experiments in urban community gardens. These data provided information on the potential risk of heavy metal contaminants and ways in which to mitigate those risks in an urban gardening context. Generally, values were below guideline thresholds, however, at a few garden sites, soil trace metal concentrations (Pb, Cd, Zn) exceeded Austrian recommended limits. Moreover, only at two sites were plant trace metal concentrations shown to be above European food standards limits. Given the citizen’s positive response to the project, we suggest expanding this study to the whole of Vienna, giving newly established gardens a chance to predetermine the risks posed by their local soils.

Investigation of Global Trends of Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems around Barrang Caddi Island, Spermonde Archipelago Cluster: An Ecological Approach

“…Thus, there are many transportation activities for various types of ships. This significantly contributes to exposure to pollutants, especially pollutants of the PAH, HM, and MP types [13,46,101].…”

“…According to the Director General of BPOM RI No. 03725/B/SK/VII/89, the maximum threshold value of heavy metal contamination in fish for pollutants Pb +2 and Cu +2 = 0.008 µg/g [33,55,82,101] The data on the average concentrations of the two heavy metal pollutants (Table 7) show that exposure to Pb +2 and Cu +2 is still below the threshold value. However, using the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) standard, with a smaller tolerance value than the maximum threshold, it was concluded that the two pollutants found in fish around BCI exceeded the standard [10,55,76,102,103].…”

One Million Voices Global Review: A review and analysis of existing citizen science initiatives and projects supporting agroecology and agroecological transitions

“…Citizens across Vienna Austria were asked to bury pots in which they grew plants. After the growing cycle was completed the citizens collected soil and plant samples to send to the lab for a heavy metal analysis (Ziss et al 2021).…”

Investigation Pollutants of Global Trends in Marine Ecosystems around Barrang Caddi Island, Spermonde Archipelago Cluster: An Ecological Approach

“…Comparing the concentration of the measurement results (Table 7) with seawater quality standards shows that the contaminants Pb +2 and Cu +2 , about BCI, are 20 times and 25 times higher, respectively [99]. The maximum threshold value for heavy metal contaminants in fish, Pb +2 = 2 µg/g and Cu +2 = 20 µg/g, by Dirjen BPOM No 03725/B/SK/VII/89 [100]. The average concentration of the two types of heavy metal pollutants (Table 7) shows that exposure to Pb +2 and Cu +2 is still below the threshold value.…”