Overview
Eslami and colleagues pooled leafy vegetables from 10 distribution centers in Rafsanjan in each season of 2024 and measured eleven elements by ICP-MS. Persian leek had very high arsenic, radish high lead in spring and summer, and lettuce the highest chromium; mercury was not detectable in any sample. The PDF is the unedited accepted manuscript (“Article in Press”).
Key numbers
- Persian leek, summer: arsenic 16.33 ± 1.21 mg/kg (Table 1, p. 33).
- Radish, summer: lead 6.10 ± 1.33 mg/kg; annual lead mean 4.22 ± 2.07 mg/kg (Table 1, p. 33; Results p. 13).
- Lettuce, winter: chromium 13.21 ± 1.16 mg/kg (Table 1, p. 34).
- Cadmium ranged from below 0.01 (coriander, spring and summer) to 0.30 mg/kg (Persian leek, winter) (Table 1).
Methods (brief)
Washed samples were dried at 70 °C, ashed at 500 °C, digested with nitric then hydrochloric acid and read by ICP-MS. LODs were within 0.01 mg/kg for arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium; recoveries 88 to 108 percent. No reference material is named.
Evidence Fitness
Three pooled samples per vegetable per season from one city, so the effective sample is small. The weight basis is not stated, the arsenic levels are unusually high for market produce, and the Persian leek annual arsenic mean is printed two ways. Final published values may differ from this accepted manuscript. Direct for non-root vegetables (leafy); a proxy for non-root-vegetable-purees, which is not linked.