Health risk assessment of heavy metals in irrigated fruits and vegetables cultivated in selected farms around Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria

Heavy Metal Contamination in Food: The Perspective of the Sub-Saharan Informal Food Trade

“…Chemical toxicants form a great portion of contaminants according to recent studies [24,25]. These toxicants can lead to several undesired health effects for habitual consumers.…”

“…These toxicants can lead to several undesired health effects for habitual consumers. Furthermore, the consumption of potential toxic metals negatively affects the bioavailability of some essential minerals causing a decrease in immunological defenses, intrauterine growth retardation, psychosocial behaviour disorders, disabilities associated with malnutrition, and high prevalence of upper gastrointestinal cancers [2,24]. This makes heavy metal-induced toxicity a public health concern since the major pathway of human exposure to toxic substances is through the oral route.…”

Pollution status, health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements in soil and their uptake by gongronema latifolium in peri-urban of Ora-Eri, south-eastern Nigeria

“…Food is the major source of heavy metal intake by humans. Vegetables absorb trace elements and accumulate them in their parts at quantities high enough to cause health problems to both animals and humans, from plant consumption ( Lere et al., 2021 ). Excessive concentration of metals beyond the maximum permissible limit can affect ground water, drinking wells, microorganism activities in the soil, plant growth and quality of food ( Wang et al., 2020 ; Nganje et al., 2020 ; Antoniadis et al., 2019 ; Nduka and Umeh, 2021 ).…”