Health Risk Assessment of Dietary Heavy Metals Intake from Fruits and Vegetables Grown in Selected Old Mining Areas—A Case Study: The Banat Area of Southern Carpathians

Abstract

In this study, we conducted a noncarcinogenic risk assessment of consuming vegetables and fruits grown in two old mining areas from the Banat area of Southern Carpathians (Romania), Moldova Veche (M) and Rusca Montana (R) and in a nonpolluted reference area located near the village of Borlova (Ref). Concentrations of Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd and Pb in soils and commonly eaten vegetables and fruits were measured and used for calculating the weighted estimated daily intake of metals (WEDIM), the target hazard quotients (THQ) and the total target hazard quotients (TTHQ) for normal daily consumption in adults. Levels of certain metals in soils and plants from the R area (Pb) and the M area (Cu) were higher than those measured in the Ref area—and often exceeded normal or even alert-threshold levels. TTHQs for the R area (1.60; 6.03) and the M area (1.11; 2.54) were above one for leafy vegetables and root vegetables, respectively, suggesting a major risk of adverse health effects for diets, including these vegetal foodstuffs. Moreover, THQ and TTHQ indicated a higher population health risk for the R area than for the M area, with the Ref area being a safe zone.

Potential Ecological and Human Health Risks of Heavy Metals in Soils in Selected Copper Mining Areas—A Case Study: The Bor Area

“…Despite all individual THQs being below 1, the measured values for the combined index TTHQ approached or surpassed 1 for celery roots and carrot roots in both females (1.41; 1.05) and males (1.15; 0.85), with the main contributors being Cu and Fe. Similar trends for TTHQ, with Cu and/or Fe dominance were reported for other copper-mining areas [ 21 , 52 , 59 , 60 ]. Although these THQs are greater than 1.0, they are relatively low and do not imply that adverse health effects will occur.…”

“…Quantitative estimation of potential for non-cancer effects through consumption of metal-contaminated vegetables was conducted using the target hazard quotients (THQ) [ 21 ], as per the US EPA Region III Risk-Based Concentration Table [ 22 ]: THQ = ( E F × E D × F IR × C M )/( R f D × W × T A × 10 3 ) where E F is exposure frequency (days year −1 ); E D is the exposure duration (years); F IR is the food ingestion rate (g person −1 day −1 ); C M is the metal concentration in vegetables (mg kg −1 ); R f D is the oral reference dose (mg kg −1 day −1 ); W is the mean body weight for adults (kg); and T A is the average exposure time for non-carcinogens (number of days year −1 × number of exposure years). Exposure frequency ( E F ) was set to 183.5 days year −1 [ 17 ].…”

Cadmium, Lead, Copper, Zinc, and Iron Concentration Patterns in Three Marine Fish Species from Two Different Mining Sites inside the Gulf of California, Mexico

“…When in excess, metals have been associated with serious effects to both human and animal health. For example, high intake levels of copper, zinc, and lead have been related to Alzheimer’s disease; zinc and iron, with Parkinson’s disease; cadmium may induce kidney dysfunctions, osteomalacia, and reproductive deficiencies, among others [ 4 , 5 ].…”

Investigation of Heavy Metal Accumulation in Mung Bean through Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy

“…Mung bean used as food for human beings and there might be large concentration of heavy metals accumulated in the human body (Manea, Ienciu et al 2020). Studies have shown that soils of refuse dumpsite contain different kinds and concentrations of heavy metals (Smith and Mohammed 2020).…”