Avances en reciclaje y gestión de residuos

Environmental Health Risk Estimation of Heavy Metals Accumulated in Soil and Cultivated Plants Irrigated with Industrial Effluents

Abstract

Ganesh Chandra Kisku*, Markandeya, H Kushwaha and S Arora

The lands of Kalipur area are contaminated with industrial wastewater and dust particles. Anticipating a possible health hazard through contaminated food crops with toxic metals like chromium, nickel and cadmium was investigated. The mobilization of metal from rhizosphere soil to plant tissues was calculated to determine the enrichment factors of soil and plants. Scanning Electron Microscope and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy were used for comparative study of surface soil contamination. The Ni, Cr and Cd in soil varied from 24.5 to 44.5, 42.4 to 65.5 and 14.2 to 31.6 μg g-1 enriched by a factor of 3.81, 4.64 and 20.94. Their corresponding values in cultivated plants and weeds were 12.6 ± 1.04 to 44.5 ± 2.84, 26.3 ± 1.64 to 67.5 ± 4.82 and 6.6 ± 0.84 to 22.3 ± 1.46 μg g-1 dry wt. enriched by a factor of 7.49, 6.89 and 22.08 respectively. All these metals are causing toxicity of soil while in plant tissues exceed the phytotoxicity limit and fall in the critical range. The causes of wide variation in metal uptake and accumulation in above ground plant parts and how weeds are growing luxuriously in spite of pollution and metal stress condition through evolution are well explained. Thus our study suggests that there is a health risk due to consumption of plants containing higher amounts of toxic metals resulting in asymptomatic chronic disorders in humans and cattle.