Health risk assessment of heavy metals exposure via consumption of crops grown in phosphogypsum-contaminated soils
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Health risk assessment of heavy metals exposure via consumption of crops grown in phosphogypsumcontaminated soils Imen Ben Chabchoubi . Sirine Bouguerra . Mohamed Ksibi . Olfa Hentati
Received: 5 May 2020 / Accepted: 4 November 2020 Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The management of phosphogypsum (PG) heap, located south of the Sfax city in Tunisia, has been going on for decades. But dumping this solid waste still poses environmental problems. Even though valorized as amendment to agriculture soils, the sanitary impact of this practice is not seriously considered. To assess the risk of the transference of contaminants from PG to agricultural soil-plants food chain, a wild plant species Salicornia arabica grown in PG-contaminated field and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and oat (Avena sativa) grown in laboratory using different rates (10, 20 and 30%) of PG
I. Ben Chabchoubi Institut Supe´rieur de Biotechnologie de Monastir, Universite´ de Monastir, Rue Taher Haddad, 5000 Monastir, Tunisia I. Ben Chabchoubi S. Bouguerra M. Ksibi O. Hentati Laboratoire Ge´nie de l’Environnement et Ecotechnologie (GEET), Ecole Nationale d’Inge´nieurs de Sfax (ENIS), Route de Soukra, Km 3,5, B.P. 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia S. Bouguerra GreenUPorto - Sustainable Agrifood Production Research Center, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Campo Alegre, s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal M. Ksibi O. Hentati (&) Institut Supe´rieur de Biotechnologie de Sfax, Universite´ de Sfax, Route de Soukra, Km 4,5, B.P. 1175, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia e-mail: [email protected]
amendment, were tested. The cadmium, lead, chromium, nickel, copper and zinc concentrations in soils and plants were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry and by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, respectively. Measurements showed that Ni, Cu and Pb levels in the amended soils were below international standards except for Cd and Cr which exceeded Chinese, FAO/WHO and European allowable standard limits. Gathered results showed that the more the PG rate increases, the more the bioconcentration factors of heavy metals increased in plants, particularly in the roots. This is a prospective study assuming direct or indirect exposure scenario of different human cohorts by consuming varied common food stuffs. The Human Exposure to Soil Pollutants evaluation and United State Environment Protection Agency models were adopted for the hazard quotient calculation to assess the acceptability of sanitary risk related to each metal. The direct and indirect health risk assessments varied in the decreasing order: children, adolescents and then adults. Therefore, the PG amendment must not exceed the rate of 10%. Keywords Phosphogypsum (PG) Amendment Heavy metals Bioconcentration factor (BCF) Exposure scenario Hazard quotient (HQ) Health risk assessment
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Environ Geochem Health
Introduction In many parts of the world, the quality of the environment has been degrad
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