Risk assessment of hazardous elements in wastewater irrigated soil and cultivated vegetables in Pakistan
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Risk assessment of hazardous elements in wastewater irrigated soil and cultivated vegetables in Pakistan Alia Naz 1,2 & Sardar Khan 1 & Said Muhammad 3 Sadia Alam 6 & Zia ur Rahman 2
&
Rafiq Ahmad 4 & Salma Khalid 5 & Abdullah Khan 2 & Rashid Nazir 4 &
Received: 1 March 2020 / Accepted: 1 November 2020 / Published online: 10 November 2020 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2020
Abstract Wastewater irrigation leads to the deposition of hazardous elements (HE) in irrigated soils which could be accumulated in cultivated vegetables, contaminating the food chain and pose threat to the human population. HE concentrations could be varied in the wastewater-irrigated and background soil and cultivated vegetables with season depending on temperature, humidity, and quantity of irrigation water. For this purpose, soil and vegetable samples were collected in the summer and winter seasons of Peshawar, Pakistan, and analyzed for HE including Cu, Cr, Cd, Co, Zn, Pb, Mn, and Ni. Results revealed that HE contaminations except for Ni in wastewater-irrigated soil and vegetables of both seasons were multifold higher than reference. Between seasons, summer had higher HE contamination in soil and vegetables compared to the winter season. The Cd and Ni concentrations in soil and Pb, Cd, and Cr in vegetables of both seasons exceeded their respective threshold limits set by the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization. Soil enrichment factors for HE contamination were observed greater than one that could be attributed to wastewater irrigation. Higher values of bioaccumulation factors were found for Cd (1.4), Co (1.8), and Cu (4.0). HE concentrations of vegetables were used for the risk assessment using average daily intake (ADI) and target hazard quotient (THQ). The ADI values of Cd and Pb were observed higher than their respective referenced dose. The THQ values ranged from 0.002–3.86 and 0.02–3.46 for adults and children. Higher THQ values could result in various health problems for the exposed human community. Keywords Hazardous elements . Contamination . Average daily intake . Target hazard quotient . Summer and winter seasons
Responsible Editor: Amjad Kallel
Introduction
* Sardar Khan [email protected]
Sufficient irrigation water supply has emerged as a serious constraint in arid and semi-arid regions of the world (Margenat et al. 2019; Qayyum et al. 2019). In addition to the agriculture sector, water scarcity limited all other aspects of human life and development. Industrialization and increasing agricultural food demand resulted in water scarcity at regional and global levels (Boulay et al. 2018; Waheed et al. 2019). Water scarcity has been dealing with the practice of wastewater irrigation in the agricultural field despite their associated risks (Cao et al. 2018; He and Huang 2020; Hussain and Qureshi 2020). Wastewater irrigation offers uninterrupted supplies, environmental (reduction in problems of effluent disposal), and socio-economic (low cost, easily available, fertilizer as nutr
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