Accumulation of heavy metals in Spinacia oleracea irrigated with paper mill effluent and sewage

Abstract

The present study on heavy metal contamination in soil and their accumulation in edible part (leaves) and roots of Spinacia oleracea (Spinach) on irrigation with paper mill effluent (PME)/sewage revealed that there was significant increase in the nickel (Ni, +227.17 %) content of the soil irrigated with PME, whereas in the soil irrigated with sewage chromium (Cr, +274.84 %), iron (Fe, +149.56 %), and cadmium (Cd, +133.39 %), contents were increased appreciably. The value of enrichment factor (EF) for Ni (3.27) indicated moderate enrichment in PME-irrigated soil. The EF of Fe, zinc (Zn), Cd, and Cr were <2 in PME effluent-irrigated soil which showed deficiency of minimal enrichment. In sewage irrigated soil, EF value for Cr, Fe, and Cd indicated moderate enrichment, while the values for Zn and Ni indicated deficiency of minimal enrichment. Among various metallic concentrations, the maximum concentration of Fe was observed in leaves (400.12 ± 11.47 mg/kg) and root (301.41 ± 13.14 mg/kg) of S. oleracea after irrigation with PME, whereas the maximum concentrations of Fe was found in leaves (400.49 ± 5.97 mg/kg) and root (363.94 ± 11.37 mg/kg) of S. oleracea after irrigation with sewage for 60 days. The bioaccumulation factor value was found maximum for Cd (2.23) in the plants irrigated with PME while that of Fe (0.90) in the plants irrigated with sewage. The undiluted use of PME/sewage for irrigation increased the concentration of Cr, Cd, Zn, Ni, and Fe metals which were accumulated in S. oleracea, posing a potential threat to human health from this practice of irrigation.

Distribution, Enrichment and Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Soil and &lt;i&gt;Trigonella foenum-graecum&lt;/i&gt; L. (Fenugreek) after Fertigation with Paper Mill Effluent

“…Enrichment of various metals was also paddy crops after paper mill effluent irrigation. The findings are very much in accordance with Pathak et al [9,10].…”

“…Heavy metals are very harmful because of their non-biodegradable nature, long biological half-lives and their potential to accumulate in different body parts [6][7][8]. Most of the heavy metals are extremely toxic because of their solubility in water [3,9,10]. Wastewater contains substantial amounts of toxic heavy metals, which create problems [6,[11][12][13].…”

Translocation and enrichment of heavy metals in Brassica juncea grown in Paper mill effluent irrigated soil

“…The present data revealed that the level of heavy metals in soil increased as per dilution quantity of PME. In the present study heavy metal content such as Pb (17.40±0.78 mg/ kg), Cr (32.02±1.18 mg/kg), Ni (67.02±1.46 mg/kg) and Cd (6.35±0.49 mg/kg) with 100% PME irrigated soil was higher than those reported by Pathak et al (2013) for Cr (29.53±3.33 mg/kg) and Cd (6.11±1.74 mg/kg) in 100% PME irrigated soil, except Ni (206.18±13.44 mg/kg) in PME irrigated soil at Haridwar, whereas Sinha et al (2008) found Fe (14,285 ± 1244 mg/kg), Cr (197.76 ± 12.83 mg/kg) and Zn (104.91 ± 0.97 mg/kg) in soils treated with different tannery sludge applications. PME irrigation increased Pb, Cr, Cd and Ni of the soil.…”

“…Ef value for Pb and Ni showed deficiency to mineral enrichment with 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% PME irrigation. The Ef value of Ni for soil was lower than Ni (3.27) as reported by Pathak et al (2013) for PME irrigated soil. also reported more Ef for Cr (11.24), Cd (5.04) in soil irrigated with Sugar mill effluent.…”

Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals from Paper Mill Effluent Soil Using <i>Croton sparsiflorus</i>

“…Heavy metals are very harmful because of their non-biodegrable nature, long biological half-lives and their potential to accumulate in different body parts [6][7][8]. Most of the heavy metals are extremely toxic because of their solubility in water [3,9,10]. The major short comings of the conventional treatments are low efficiency at low concentration of heavy metals, expensive handling and safe disposal of toxic sludge [11].…”