Levels, dietary intake, and health risk of potentially toxic metals

Overview

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acid-extracted and analyzed using ICP-MS. The concentrations of Cr, Zn, Pb, As, and Cd in fruits (54, 50, 50, 45, and 4%
samples, respectively), vegetables (53, 43, 63, 80, and 46%), and cereals (37, 62, 25, 70, and 25%) exceeded their respective
permissible limits set by FAO/WHO (2001). The results showed that the highest mean concentration was observed for Ni
(14.95 mg/kg), Pb (0.57 mg/kg), and Cd (0.27 mg/kg) in vegetables followed by fruits and cereals. However, the highest mean
concentration of As (0.44 mg/kg) was observed in cereal crops followed by vegetables and fruits. The individual health risk of
total HRI values (fruits + vegetables + cereals) for Ni, As, and Cd for both adults and children were observed > 1 and may posed
et al. 2009). Vegetables, fruits, and cereals are contaminated
(Bahemuka and Mubofu 1999; Cobb et al. 2000). Vegetables
ronments (Khairiah et al. 2004; Chojnacha et al. 2005; Nawab 16), Citrus tangerine (tangerine, n = 15), Malus domestica (apple,
et al. 2016b, c). The concentrations of PTMs in different foods n = 10), Psidium guajava (guava, n = 08), Solanum lycopersicum
depend on the soil composition, nutrient balance and permissi- (tomato, n = 20), Allium cepa (onion, n = 18), Solanum
bility of metals, ability of absorption, and the species selectivity tuberosum (potato, n = 18), Pisum sativum (pea, n = 15),
(Ahmad and Goni 2010). Industrial and vehicle emission can Abelmoschus esculentus (lady finger, n = 16), Oryza sativa (rice,
also release PTMs, which can be deposited on fruits, vegetables, n = 48), Phaseolus vulgaris (kidney beans, n = 18), and Cicer
and cereal crop surfaces during harvesting, production, transpor- arietinum (chickpeas, n = 16). The local, common, botanical,
tation, and marketing (Al Jassir et al. 2005). The atmospheric and family names of the selected foodstuffs are given in Table 1.
The main route of PTMs exposure for humans is the dietary A total of 216 samples of vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops
foodstuffs (fruits, vegetables, and cereals) on the roads with mil- night. The sample was heated at 90 °C; after that, 4 ml
tions in foodstuffs (vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops) supplied MS; Agilent Technologies, 7500 CX, USA). These analyses
analysis of plant certificated reference materials (CRMs) (ranged between 90.9 and 102.7%) from these reference
Table 1 The local, common and
pared using sigma plot, while Arc Geographic Information summarized in Table 2. In the present study, the As concen-
(Arc-GIS) system software (version 10) was used for location trations in fruits, vegetables, and cereal crops ranged from
tively (Table 2). The highest As concentrations in fruits, veg-
etables, and cereal crops were observed in banana (0.15 mg/
kg), onion (0.25 mg/kg), and rice (sela) (0.44 mg/kg), while
EDItotal ¼ EDIfruits þ EDIvegetables þ EDIcereal ð2Þ der was onion > lady finger > potato > tomato > pea, and for
Where Cm, Cf, Dfi, and Baw represented the concentrations peas > kidney beans (Table 2). The mean As concentrations in
factor was used for the conversion of fresh weight of the safe limit (0.1 mg/kg) set by FAO/WHO (2001) in 45, 80,
foodstuffs into dry weight (Rattan et al. 2005; Khan and 70% samples of fruits, vegetables, and cereal crops,
et al. 2014). The average daily intake of foodstuffs for respectively The concentrations of As in vegetables were
et al. 2014). EDIfruits, EDIvegetables, and EDIcereal represent inhalation, and drinking of contaminated water. Subsequently
where HRI, EDI, and RfD represent the health risk index, crops ranged from 0.02 to 0.11, 0.03 to 0.47, and 0.02 to
estimated dietary intake, and oral reference dose of metals, 0.54 mg/kg, with its mean concentrations of 0.05, 0.14, and
respectively. The reference daily dose (RfD) values for Cr, 0.09 mg/kg, respectively (Table 2). The highest mean concen-
Ni, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb are 1.5E−00, 2.0E−02, 3.0E−01, trations of Cd in fruits, vegetables, and cereal crops were
3.0E−04, 5.0E−04, and 3.6E−02, respectively (Shah et al. observed in banana (0.07 mg/kg), lady finger (0.27 mg/kg),
2012; Khan et al. 2014; USEPA 2005, 2012). HRItotal and and rice (sela) (0.16 mg/kg), while the lowest concentrations
EDI total represent the total health risk index and total were observed in guava (0.04 mg/kg), onion (0.05 mg/kg),
Onion (n = 18) Range 0.63–5.59 15.84–19.84 3.39–8.94 0.05–0.87 0.03–0.08 0.06–0.81
Chick peas (n = 16) Range 1.73–2.44 7.49–15.94 16.91–22.68 0.05–0.14 0.04–0.08 0.26–0.33
and chick peas (0.06 mg/kg). The Cd concentrations were by Radwan and Salama (2006). In human beings, the toxicity

Methods (brief)

vegetables, and cereals) collected from different markets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Samples of fruits (banana, tangerine,
acid-extracted and analyzed using ICP-MS. The concentrations of Cr, Zn, Pb, As, and Cd in fruits (54, 50, 50, 45, and 4%
samples, respectively), vegetables (53, 43, 63, 80, and 46%), and cereals (37, 62, 25, 70, and 25%) exceeded their respective
stuffs commonly sold in the open markets of Varanasi, India Sampling, acid digestion and quantification
The main route of PTMs exposure for humans is the dietary A total of 216 samples of vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops
intake through food ingestion, which causes severe health effects were collected (2016–2017) from different locations as men-
in the consumers (Li et al. 2011; Gupta et al. 2013; Amin et al. tioned in the study map (Fig. 1). All the samples were placed
of high level of exposure (Khan et al. 2014; Glover-Kerkvilet Clean samples were then oven dried at 65 ± 5 °C for 72 h,
Peshawar are the populated areas in northern Khyber cator to avoid moisture. These samples were used for acid
tial setup, exhaustive traffic load, intensive agriculture practices, cereals were acid digested by adding 0.5 g of dried sample to
foodstuffs (fruits, vegetables, and cereals) on the roads with mil- night. The sample was heated at 90 °C; after that, 4 ml
agricultural practices but also to PTMs released during automo- filtration method (Zeng et al. 2011). All the extracted samples
investigating the PTM (Cr, Ni, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb) concentra- using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-
materials. For data quality assurance, each digested sample estimated dietary intake through fruits, vegetables, and ce-
foodstuffs into dry weight (Rattan et al. 2005; Khan and 70% samples of fruits, vegetables, and cereal crops,
Table 2 Mean and range of the selected PTMs (mg/kg) via consumption of foodstuffs collected from open markets in the study area
n number of samples, ± standard deviation, 1 rice begamai, 2 rice sela
ple of fruits, vegetables, and cereal crops collected from the The Pb concentrations in fruits, vegetables, and cereal

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Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.

Commit	Date	Change	Description
b01ec52c	2026-08-04	major	2 sections added
d49e450f	2026-08-03	major	5 sections added; narrative text revised