Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals via Consumption of Contaminated Vegetables Collected from Different Agricultural Fields and Market Sites

The present study was conducted with an aim to compare heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) accumulation potential of some of the commonly grown vegetables like brinjal, cauliflower, spinach and coriander collected from different agricultural (production) and market sites of Katihar city. The accumulation of Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn in test vegetables was higher in market sites then those at all agricultural lands and elevated by 47.84, 64.84, 21.3, and 9.91% in brinjal, 36.19, 78.09, 21.83, and 6.50% in cauliflower, 34.52, 49.50, 9.1, and 9.97% in spinach and 27.86, 47.05, 10.34, and 6.13% in coriander, respectively and was observed maximum in brinjal (143.89%) followed by cauliflower (142.61%), spinach (103.09%), and coriander (91.38%). The population load index (PLI), transfer factor (TF), daily intake of metals (DIM) and health risk index (HRI) were also studied. The maximum value of PLI was found for Zn (35.06%) and minimum for Pb (0.178%) in soil collected from production sites. The TF of heavy metals in vegetable collected from market sites was found to be higher than vegetable collected from production sites and could be one of the possible reasons for health risk in human via their consumption. The average daily intake of Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn, by adults in vegetables collected from market sites were 5.38, 1.20, 4.606 and 0.336% of provisional tolerable daily intake. The HRI value of all individual vegetables was below 1.0. Therefore, it is suggested that regular monitoring of heavy metals in vegetables is essential to prevent excessive build-up of heavy metals in the food chain and appropriate precautions should also be taken at the time of transportation and marketing of vegetables.