Overview
Mostafa and colleagues bought carrot, brinjal (eggplant) and green banana at two small markets in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, on three occasions and measured lead and cadmium by atomic absorption spectrometry on dried samples. All means were below the WHO-based limits the paper uses (lead 0.30, cadmium 0.20 mg/kg dry). Green banana had no detectable lead or cadmium.
Key numbers
- Brinjal lead 0.290 ± 0.005 mg/kg dry (mean ± SEM) at KR market and 0.273 ± 0.008 at SM bazar (Tables 1 and 2, p. 22).
- Carrot cadmium 0.190 ± 0.014 mg/kg dry at KR market and 0.070 ± 0.012 at SM bazar (Tables 1 and 2).
- Green banana lead and cadmium printed as 0.000 at both markets (Tables 1 and 2).
Methods (brief)
Washed edible portions oven-dried at 80 C, ground and sieved; 1 g digested in nitric, sulfuric and perchloric acids; AAS with triplicate readings. Results are mean of 10 samples per occasion and overall mean ± SEM on a dry-weight basis. No detection limits, reference materials or recoveries reported.
Evidence Fitness
Small market survey with reasonable replication but no QA data and no collection dates. Sample counts are internally inconsistent (90 total versus 30 per vegetable per market). For vegetables-mixed this is a proxy: it measures individual vegetables, not a mixed-vegetable product.