Overview
Chowdhury and colleagues bought 15 vegetable species from three local markets in Noakhali district in 2022 and measured lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel and iron by atomic absorption. Lead, cadmium, chromium and nickel exceeded the authors’ permissible limits in nearly every species, and hazard indices were above 1.
Key numbers
- Yard-long bean: lead 12.593 ± 0.99 mg/kg fw; cauliflower: lead 12.16 ± 0.78 mg/kg fw (Table 1, p. 4).
- Taro: cadmium 2.558 ± 0.20 mg/kg fw; potato: lead 0.298 ± 0.07 mg/kg fw (Table 1, p. 4).
- Tomato: lead 1.773, cadmium 0.925, chromium 5.424 mg/kg fw (Table 1, p. 4).
Methods (brief)
Washed, oven-dried, ground samples were digested with nitric and sulfuric acids plus hydrogen peroxide and read by graphite furnace AAS (flame for iron). Recoveries were 97 to 102 percent; LODs are in supplementary tables that were not available.
Evidence Fitness
Nine samples per species pooled over three markets in one district. Values are labeled fresh weight although samples were dried before digestion, and the abstract means do not match Table 1, so the reporting is not fully consistent. Lead levels are very high for market produce. Direct for non-root vegetables; no bell pepper was measured, so it is only a proxy for green-bell-pepper and that page is not linked.